Thursday, July 31, 2008

Another good day

As reported by Melanie - When we got there this morning, they told us Butch had gone back to the atrium fibulation - which he had two days ago, although they had fixed yesterday's problem with the bottom part of the heart. They increased his lopressor from 37.5 to 50 mg. Cardiology wanted to do a cardizem drip to lower the HR (it was around 130 beats). However his HR dropped and stayed around 65 beats on its own so he didn't need it. There is still some edema but he has lost enough that his lasix is lowered to 20 mg. IV and the cardioogist is hoping for him to be able to start taking the lasix by mouth. Food intake has improved & blood work looks good - creatine is down - from 2.0 to 1.8 , which means that kidney function is improving. Electrolytes are slightly under - gave one bag of potassium and 2 bags of magnesium IV. Much more alert tonight. The infection is clearing up very well, and - all in all - we had a good day. He talked to the Grand-kids tonight, and watched a little jeopardy and wheel of furtune. VASTLY improved - we hope to turn the corner very soon.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Increasing the lopressor sounds good; he's still on a relatively low dose. Normal is 50mg twice a day - I'm on 75mg twice a day and could safely go to 100mg twice a day as long as my blood pressure stays up.
Still sounds like alot of this is due to his electrolytes being out of whack; whenever the potassium and magnesium are either high or low, you can have the arrythmia so instinct is telling me when they get under control, so will the arrythmia. Glad his crit is better. Part of the problem with the electrolytes is that lasix is potassium depleeting so you kind of get into a viscious cycle there but it sounds like things are smoothing out. Know what would make my day? To have him ask you for a slice of cheesecake with strawberries!! Nutsy what we think of huh? Take care Joyce; both of you are in our thoughts and prayers. I'm so glad Mellie came; so glad. Love, Sharan

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