Tony had a rough night last night. He couldn't sleep, and his body decided it didn't know how to breathe anymore. The doctors were pretty sure he had some liquid in his lungs so he did a EKG and a CT scan this morning. The CT showed pulmonary edema which basically just means he has liquid in his lungs.
They called in a speech pathologist to check to see how he is swallowing to make sure the fluid isn't getting in that way. She suggested we buy a supplement called Healios to help heal the sores in his esophagus. But it's only sold in one store in all of Utah. So my mom ran to that store and brought it down to us. He took the first dose and feels like it's already really helping with the sores.
The next thing they decided to check was his heart. They did a blood test called a BNP that can check on heart function. The goal is for the number to be under 100. Tony hasn't been under 100 but the highest he's been before today was about 270. Today it was over 1400.
So that seems to be the problem.
They ordered a echocardiogram. We're still waiting on the results.
They've also given him a bunch of lasix that should help his body get rid of all the extra fluid in his body. Because of his heart, the fluid is retaining in his lungs.
He hasn't been able to get off oxygen yet, and he'll have to sleep with it tonight and then they can recheck everything tomorrow morning.
The nurses keep laughing about his "Christmas tree" IV pole because there's so many different bags hanging on it at all times. He's often had 6 different IVs going at a time.
We've been really impressed with this specific team of doctors. They've really been on top of everything. Anytime anything seems slightly unexpected, they jump right in to figure out the cause and work on all possible solutions.
Tony has had lots of hospital stays in the last decade, and there was an Olympics for doctors, this team of doctors takes the gold.
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