Breathing Deep

As mentioned before, breathing has been a bit of a struggle for Elaine. They give her a medicine to help remove excess fluid but when the doctors looked at x-rays today they determined that there was just too much fluid that was preventing her from breathing deep enough.

Elaine's platelets have been low and as long there isn't a reason for bleeding it's been okay. The platelets help the blood clot. In anticipation of removing the fluid off of her lungs the first thing they had to do was give her platelets. As they were prepping her the doctor asked Elaine if she had any concerns. She just looked him in the eyes and told him she trusted him. I think she made his day.

The next step was to do an ultrasound on her back so they could see exactly where the fluid was settling. Once they had the right spot they inserted a catheter as small as a needle between her ribs on her back and they successfully removed 1.25 liters of fluid.

As they were finishing the doctor asked Elaine if she could feel the difference and she said that she could. It was visibly obvious to Lynn and I that she was definitely able to take deeper more effective breaths. The doctor then said, "that couldn't have gone better." We were all able to take deeper breaths with that statement.

While I was there today I heard two different nurses say how sweet Elaine is. Her days aren't easy but she is always willing and so kind. She is an amazing example to everyone.