Friday

Through the Thursday night Oma recieved the medications to help bring her blood pressure up and it was pretty darn successful.  By midday on Friday she was taken if off completely and her BP was holding steady at about 110/60. Her heart rate had also flipped into an irregular rythym called Atrial Fibrillation or A-fib.  Her heart rate had been a bit high since she arrive to the hospital (around 120) but once she went into A-fib her heart rate increased to 150.  They gave her a medication called Amiodarone to bring it back into a regular rythm and by Friday she was looking normal again with a heart rate of about 80. 

Normal Rythm:

Atrial Fibrillation

 She had a CT scan done of her kidneys and abdomen.  They found that Oma had developed a kidney stone in her right kidney.  The stone was so large they think that it was actually blocking the kidneys ability to drain down to the bladder and was the major source of infection.  Here's a picture of how the kidneys normally work.  They kidneys filter the blood and create urine, they then drain the urine down tubes called Ureters into the bladder and once the bladder is full it drains down the urethra and out of the body.

About 5 in the evening Oma went down to have a procedure done where they put a tube in through her lower abdomen to her right kidney to drain the extra fluid that had built up from the kidney stone.  The doctors hoped to drain some of the infection this way.  The tube is called a Nephrostomy Tube and looks something like this:



The Doctors also did an ultrasound on Oma's lower legs just to make sure she didn't have any blood clots.  They found an old one that has probably been there for years, Oma already knew about it and there wasn't any new or acute problems there. 

As far as blood work goes Oma's kidney labs (called BUN and Creatinine) remained elevated but stable which was expected due to the beating her kidneys took from the infection.  A lab called Troponin was also elevated which showed that there was a little heart damage from the whole ordeal as well.  That was also expected and the Dr's are continuing to monitor it.  They also ordered an Ultrasound of her heart to see how well her heart was functioning.

Oma's breathing had been fast since she came in through the ER but Friday she was having more trouble breathing.  She was wearing much more oxygen- 5 Liters- and her oxygen levels were still on the low side.  This might have been partly due to all the fluids they gave her through her IV the night before as well as the infection so the Dr's had her start doing deep breathing exercises to help prevent pneumonia.

That evening Oma's blood pressure started drop and they put her back on Levophed (the pressor medication) to help bring it back up.  Oma's mental status was better on Friday but she still had a little trouble having conversations and answering all questions appropriately.