Please Pray
I find myself here again asking for prayers for my beloved Savanna. We took her in to see her pulmonologist this morning since she still is not getting better. The chest x-ray showed that Savanna has a pneumothorax, which means she has blown a hole in her lung. She had to be admitted immediately to the PICU for insertion of a chest tube. The good news is, the hole in her right lung is very small since we caught it early. We believe it happened some time yesterday afternoon due to the pain she was experiencing and some other symptoms. The bad news is that this is a critical thing and she is in the PICU.
Upon insertion of the chest tube, they immediately drew out 30 cc’s of air that was trapped between her right lung and the chest cavity. What essentially happens with a pneumothorax, if untreated, is that the lung will collapse because it cannot inflate with the air pushing all around it. They also drew out a considerable amount of pus which seems be quite concerning as well. That means there is obviously some type of secondary infection in her chest. The chest tube will most likely stay in a for a few days, at least. They have sent the pus off for cultures and I’m not sure how long that will take. Savanna is sedated right now and resting comfortably.
I knew something had gone terribly wrong yesterday. She appeared to be doing better on Wednesday, but then yesterday afternoon her head was sweating profusely and she seemed to be in quite a bit of pain and had a panic stricken look on her face. We believe the cough assist machine, which has been so helpful in treating her in the past, is what caused her to blow her lung out. Luckily we did not use it last night or today at all, as that would have made the hole much bigger and would have severely compromised her.
There’s not much anyone can do right now other than pray for her fully and speedy recovery. Her pulmonologist did say that these things do not normally cause any long-term damage. The lung normally fully heals after the chest tube is taken out. We don’t know how long we are expecting to be there at this point, at least until next week sometime.
As always, we appreciate your prayers and support. I will try to keep you all updated as much as possible. We won’t be able to be reached by phone, but you can try to leave messages on my cell phone or email.
Love,
Mindy
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