Topics Up For Discussion

Lynnea seems to have taken a turn for the worse today. Her fever was up to 103.6, which is higher than it has been before. Her saturation levels dropped into the 40's for a while today, and it was difficult to get them back up into the 60's even with the help of oxygen. They increased her oxygen flow to 4 liters, and had her at 55% oxygen, which is much higher than she has needed lately. She had another echocardiogram today, and the results weren't encouraging. Tomorrow morning her doctors (the pediatric ICU team, the cardiology team, and the infectious diseases team) are going to discuss her situation. They are afraid that her elusive infection might be in the part of her heart that she had reconstructed (her aorta -- more specifically, they are concerned about the B-T shunt that was placed) which would be a very, very bad thing. They will also discuss the results of her echo; the narrowing of her aorta that has been an ongoing concern may have gotten worse, and they are concerned about her heart function. They are considering putting her back on the drug Milrinone, which is used to help the heart pump more effectively (similar to Digoxin, which she's already on) and ease the symptoms of heart failure. Hopefully they will come up with some sort of a plan that will result in Lynnea getting better, one way or another.