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Pastimes : NNBM - SI Branch -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: elpolvo who wrote (15666)	7/17/2002 1:59:34 AM
From: abuelita	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104155

dusty i'm glad to hear that toni will be out of intensive care soon - that is great news. she should be home before the end of the week then, right? i don't know how it is in nm, but here, they really encourage patients to leave hospital soon. the risk of staph infection is very high in our hospitals. apparently it thrives in a sterile environment - i really have trouble understanding that one. i think its more a cost saving measure. rose

To: elpolvo who wrote (15666)	7/18/2002 5:00:00 AM
From: Wharf Rat	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 104155

Hard to tell from here just exactly what you mean about fluid in the lungs, but Sometimes it gets there because the heart or the kidneys aren't working well enuf, and the body begins to retain fluids. Usually, for that, they will give either some cardiac meds, or diuretics to make you pee more. On the other hand, it could be mucus, and the beginnings of pneumonia.(Complicated scenario, but basically, underventilated portions of the lung can begin to retain secretions, and pneumonia will develop behind it). The best prevention for this is frequent coughing and deep breathing. There is a little lung exerciser we use which is designed to get patients to breathe deeply. The hospital should have them; some sort of a device you inhale thru, raising balls or bellows or a disc , etc. This is usually done 10-15 times per hour, and the patient should try to breathe as deeply as possible. They are called Incentive Spirometers; I'll bet she already has one. (Hard to do in the hospital, but smoking a joint is the same sort of exercise). One of the most effective things she can do is get out of bed and walk several times a day. Even sitting in a chair is preferable to lying flat in bed all the time. Coughing can be a problem, because it hurts like hell. You can wrap a towel around the chest, and pull on it, across the wound; this helps hold the incision together so it is less painful when coughing (I don't mean to imply the incision will tear open with coughing; it won't do that, but coughing does apply pressure across the wound, and holding it together makes it less painful. Sometimes the patient can squeeze a pillow over the wound, but this works better on belly surgery. Often, it is easier to do a series of small coughs, even just exhaling forcefully thru the mouth several times first, to begin to mobilize secretions. I'll ask some friends about a link, but the respiratory therapy department at the hospital may have some info for you. Let me know if you have more questions. WR