2 valve replacements and 1 repar

[Juliev25]

My mum had surgery on Sunday which lasted 7 hrs, mitra valve replacement, aortic valve replacement and a repair or a valve on the right side of her heart. After surgery and shortly after being transferred to intensive care she had a further op in ITU as 2 archerys were bleeding and putting pressure on her lungs. She still in ITU and today they woke her slightly but put her back under sedation and Tom I'm going i to sign content for the tube in her mouth taken out and a tube inserted in her throat put in. She had a valve replacement 13 years ago mechanical, and 2 further surgerys years before that on the same valve. She was extremely ill before surgery and it was an emergency. She's on a mild meds for low BP and kidney machine ans liver suppressed. When should we be looking for signs of improvement

[ed34]

They can obviously see if the Liver is improving by blood tests. This is good. If the Liver fails, that's basically it. The key I think is to keep the pressure up. As a matter of interest, what have they said about the kidneys? are they still recovering?

[Juliev25]

No more improvements, just the same
There trying to ween her off the sedation but she still keeps pulling the tubes
Doctor has said they've never had such a complicated case and really don't know if she's going to recover or not so there just taking it day by day
They have said if she does recover then it's going to be a very long time recovering
They've said her liver is slowly recovering
Never know what to expect every day huh

[ed34]

Oh just to add, they normally lightly sedate the patients for a quiet restful night. Did they mention this?

[ed34]

gas improvement is good news. There are two basic ways they check oxygen in the blood in hospitals. They use the finger clip which just tells you how well the red cells have absorbed oxygen. However, it doesn't tell you the saturation, how many red cells there are. It's fine having good oxygen levels in red cells, but if there are not many red cells, you will die. The blood gas measures the concentration of the red cells in the blood and how well they are oxygenated. Improvement means her lungs are improving, and the heart is pumping more oxygen around. As improvements continue, the ventilator can be gradually turned down. So that is really good news. With regards to blood pressure, it could be down to her kidneys still, so it means waiting til they full recover. They can maintain it with meds. It's very common for patients to react that way when woken from sedation with all the tubes etc. It's frightening, and apart from sedation the only other method is straps. I really feel for her :( but try to keep in mind it's for the best. I think if they keep her pressure up, and oxygen continues to improve, her kidneys should recover fully and start handling the pressure on their own again. It's looking better.

[ACerulean]

I really don't know what to say other than that I hope that your mother makes a full recovery.

[Juliev25]

Been told blood gases have slightly improved .. Wat this means I'm unsure
Mums reacting violently when woken and trying to rip tubes out and even the mitten gloves she's ripping off. Two nurses had to hold her down and in the end they've resorted to strapping her to the bed. This is very distressing. She's still needing high doseages of meds for blood pressure etc and looks even more swollen but been told when I questioned her fluid input and out put there coldly balancing it and it's ok
Very unsure as to what's going on
Julie