I took over for Cathy today so she could get a break. Maria has to be monitored constantly by a family member and if Cathy wants to leave for even a minute, she has to call the nurse in to watch Maria while she’s gone.
Maria is not just constantly monitored on in EEG, they also measure her heart, blood oxygen, and have her on video. Every time there is an “incident”, not just the gagging but anything that seems seizure-like, we click a button. That puts a “look here” mark on the readout and alerts the nurse to look at the monitor and make sure everything is OK.
Since Maria didn’t have any strong incidents yesterday, they decided to keep her another day.
They did a chest xray to see if she has any gunk in her lungs; we haven’t gotten the results on that yet. I talked to the on-call GI and he doesn’t think Maria is refluxing (we agree) but still thinks it’s a good idea to do an EGD and a pulmonoscopy (stick a camera down her throat to look at her stomach and lungs – we agree with that, too). We are trying to coordinate that with the BAER so that she has to be anesthetized only once for all three procedures.
She did her gagging thing a couple of times but only minor ones. Then she had a dramatic one, blue lips and all, which is “good” since it gives them a full set of readings to look at during the incident.
Honestly, I suspect she’s not getting out tomorrow. Sue will take the day tomorrow and I’ll probably take Thursday if Maria’s still there.