Still in Mayo

Dan is still in Mayo, we hope he gets to come home tomorrow. Sunday night after he moved to a room back on 3West, they did the thorocentesis and took out a lot of fluid from the lining of the left lung. The rest of the night was miserable for Dan, he coughed all night, apparently the lung was a little compressed from the pressure of the fluid and once it opened up there was plenty of fluid in his bronchial tubes. The pulmonary guy gave him an albuterol breathing treatment to get the tubes opened up. Once he stopped coughing around 6am, he got a little sleep, and later on the morning he felt better and was breathing better.

So now they are trying to figure out why the kidneys are not functioning well. He didn't have any problems pre-transplant other than a kidney stone, so we know it's from the transplant, these organs aren't fully "awake" yet. It's a vicious cycle. The kidneys need plenty of blood flow and lots of fluid from water we drink to work well. Without those, the kidneys get sleepy and fluid we consume needs to go somewhere, so it fills up either the tissues or the blood vessels. Healthy kidneys can get working again when we drink more water, that's why we run to the bathroom more, which is a good thing unless you're stuck in traffic on the H-1. Dan's kidneys aren't healthy so he has swelling in his feet and legs, tummy, around the lungs (which they drained on Sunday), even his scrotum (don't tell him I told you this one). For Dan, they don't want him drinking more than 1 bottle of water a day, they want to treat his swelling with meds, like albumin (draws the fluid from the tissues to the vessels) and then lasix and another diuretic I can't remember the name, that should get the fluids excreted through the kidneys and bladder. Please pray the doctors can figure out why the kidneys and bladder are still sleeping and this will be an easy and quick fix. With his legs and feet so swollen, it's hard for Dan to walk and he needs to do this daily to get stronger.

Aloha,
Debbie and Dan