Day 8

Baba's years of smoking have caught up with him now. What has surfaced overnight is that Baba suffers from COPD or chronic bronchitis.  He struggles to breath easily, driving his heart rate up and had to be heavily sedated and hopped up on pain medication due to a very scary incident this morning. Intermittent blood tests revealed that Baba's blood is not being oxygenated as it should be, so when I got back to the hospital this morning the respiratory therapists and doctors decided that he needs to be put on a CPAP machine to help with his oxygen levels and to prevent CO2 retention. No one likes CPAPs.  Who wants to have a mask blowing pressurized air strapped to their face? Naturally, this caused Baba to become extremely alarmed and agitated, driving his heart rate sky high, blood pressure through the roof and airways constricted in a pulmonary episode. Though the neurosurgeons went ahead and clamped the catheter this morning, they had to temporarily unclamp it to release the pressure during this incident.  It is now re-clamped and is still on schedule to have it removed in 40 hours from now, contingent on the results of his CT Scans.
Baba has been sleeping all day and his vitals are generally stable once again, but the doctors want to get that CPAP machine back on him as he continues to struggle breathing.  Should his lungs continue to become filled with fluids (due to the infection) and his blood oxygen levels remain low, he may have to be re-intubated.  Swallow-tests and physiotherapy have all been put on hold until he is awake and able to breath easily.