In a few minutes, once the surgery residents deign to call back with details (i.e. which tube), one or two of my chest tubes will be coming out!! That could hurt a slight bit, so they're gonna keep me on the morphine drip and add in a little propofol (yes, the Micheal Jackson sleepy medicine).
Once that's done, they're going to turn my ventilator to what's called "pressure support"...meaning, I take all of my own breaths and the ventilator just adds pressure to it. It's basically practice...let's them know I can coordinate it and breathe OFTEN enough so they can be reasonably satisfied that without the tube, I'll breathe.
Another reason they add that pressure is that I'll essentially be breathing through a straw, which if you try it, you'll realize is a LOT harder than breathing normally...so the pressure "support" just takes some of that effort off of me.
Later today, extubation!!
And 4 hours after that...I get to EAT!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment