She's Coming Home

Sick

Morning- Gabby POV
I still feel awful, a nurse comes and takes me off oxygen then leaves because I don't have to get up yet. A bit later Nat comes in
Nat- ready to get up?
Gabby- no
Nat- why not? What's going on?
Gabby- tired
I start choking a bit and she suctioned me. Then she went to look at my chart and talk to the nurses. She came back in looking concerned
Nat- sounds like you had a rough night
Gabby- yes
Nat- what's wrong?
Gabby- tired sore headache
Nat- ok, one minute
She comes back with a thermometer and takes my temperature.
Nat- not quite a fever but you're warm, I'll get you some Tylenol for your headache and it will also help you not get a fever.
She leaves and comes back with a syringe and a feed bag. She gives me the syringe of Tylenol then some water to flush the tube.
Nat- I'm going to give you this too, its just water with electrolytes and vitamins.
Gabby- ok
She hooked up the water then started getting ready to get me up
Nat- you have speech, you can come back to bed after ok?
Gabby- ok
Speech doesn't go well, I choke on the first bite of food so she doesn't give me any more. I lay down in between speech and OT which I don't usually do. I can barely do anything in OT or PT and just feel worse throughout the day. Nat comes to check on me after PT
Nat- hey, I was going to ask how you're doing but I can tell, you look awful
Gabby- thanks
Nat- same as this morning?
Gabby- feel worse. Horrible
Nat- I'm going to check your temperature again
She does and I can tell its not good from her face before she says anything.
Nat- you have a fever, its not too high but I'm going to get you meds to try and bring it down.
She gives me meds then has to leave, she's back a few hours later
Nat- feeling any better?
Gabby- no. Hard to breathe
Nat- I'll check you out again
She checks my temperature then gets her stethoscope and listens to my lungs.
Nat- you still have a fever but its down a bit. Your lungs don't sound great, I'm going to start you on breathing treatments. Congratulations, you definitely have Shay's cold
Gabby- hate sick
Nat- I know, I'll be back, hopefully the breathing treatments with help you feel a bit better
She comes back and sets up a nebulizer then has to leave again to find an adapter to put it on my trach.
Nat- ok, here you go. I'm not sure why these are so hard to find.
She hooks me up to the nebulizer and sits with me. I stay quiet for a while then decide to ask her
Gabby- will I go back to ICU
What she'd said yesterday had been worrying me since I started feeling sick
Nat- I hope you don't have to but it's possible, you're at much higher risk for pneumonia with your breathing problems but hopefully we can avoid that by starting these breathing treatments early. Have you been coughing today?
Gabby- no just choking and hard to breathe
Nat- ok, I might start you on some more stuff tomorrow, we'll see how you do overnight. Obviously coughing involves muscles so it might be hard for you. I know coughing's not fun but it is helpful because it's clearing your lungs.
Gabby- so more problems
Nat- we have some machines that can help clear your lungs if you need it.
Gabby- ok

It was another night of not much sleep and frequent suctioning. They had to call Nat around 1am and ended up doing another breathing treatment and putting me on bi-pap. Nat came in first thing in the morning.
Nat- good morning
Gabby- no
Nat- ok, not a good morning, I'm going to check your lungs again
She listening to my lungs then rolled me on my side to listen from my back
Nat- I don't like how your lungs are sounding
Gabby- worse
Nat- Gabby
Gabby- tell me
Nat- ok, yes they sound worse than yesterday. I'm going to get another breathing treatment ready and one of the machines I was telling you about.
Gabby- ok
She comes back with a weird vest and a machine
Nat- you wear this and then I hook it up to the machine and it shakes and helps break up the stuff in your lungs.
She puts the vest on me then hooks up the nebulizer and turns the machine on. It feels really weird but I can breathe a little bit easier. I cough a few times after
Nat- good, that's what we want
She rolls me on my side and suctions, its a bit easier to breathe on my side
Nat- your SATs came up a bit, do you want to lay on your side for a bit?
I look at her
Nat- ok, one minute
She comes back with a nurse and a bunch of pillows and blankets. They get me positioned on my side and adjust the eye gaze so I can still use it.
Nat- have you been nauseous at all?
Gabby- no
Nat- ok, I'm going to set up your feed then
She sets up my feed and checks everything.
Nat- ok, I have to get to the ED but I'll come check on you when I can. No therapy today, try to get some sleep
Gabby- ok
She leaves but I hear her talking to the nurses in the hall
Nat- Tylenol and breathing treatments every 4 hours, keep monitoring her temp and SATs, check lung sounds before and after each treatment. When she's not on a feed I want her on fluids through the g-tube. If she gets nauseous stop everything going through her tube and page me. If anything changes page me. I'll be back as soon as I can.

Nat POV
It's been a few hours, I haven't heard anything about Gabby which I guess is good. I'm worried about her, she's been doing really well and now she's going downhill fast with this cold.
Nat- Maggie I'm going to check on Gabby. Page me if you need me
Maggie- hey, what's going on with Gabby, I heard she's had some hard nights
Nat- she's sick. Shay had to get picked up from daycare 2 days ago, that night Gabby didn't sleep well, I was hoping she was just upset I wouldn't let her see Shay but she's definitely sick
Maggie- how's she doing?
Nat- she's declining really fast but I'm trying not to tell her. She's scared she'll have to go back to the ICU and, if she keeps going like this I think she'll be there by tomorrow. I started her on breathing treatments last night and the vest this morning.
Maggie- are her lungs that bad already?
Nat- she's not coughing so she's not clearing her lungs at all
Maggie- when is our girl going to catch a break!?
Nat- I know. Ok, I need to go see her now
Maggie- yep, I'll page if we really need you. I expect an update!
Nat- thanks Maggie
I head to Gabby's room and check in with the nurses
Nat- how's she doing
Nurse- we were just about to start a breathing treatment, SATs are a bit low and she still has a fever.
Nat- ok, I'll check on her

Nat- hey Gabby, how are you doing?
She doesn't answer, she's not really awake.
Nat- I'm just going to check on you again
Her lungs sounds worse and her fever's higher.
Nat- ok, I'm going to put you on oxygen and take you for a chest x-Ray to check for pneumonia.
She looks at me which I guess is good. I put her on oxygen and get her in her chair to go for the x-Ray. I leave her tilted back, I don't think she could keep her head up. I get her back to her room after the x-Ray and page Rhodes. I show him the chest x-Ray.
Nat- she's already on nebulizers and started with the vest this morning but she's still declining. I put her on oxygen
Rhodes- you could tell this isn't good without me, she has pneumonia
Nat- I know, what can we do. Nothing I've tried is helping.
Rhodes- let's do another round of nebulizers and the vest and put her on high flow O2 and start her on antibiotics
We give her the treatments then dr Rhodes listens to her lungs.
Rhodes- Gabby I'm going to suction your lungs, it won't feel good but it should make it easier for you to breathe.
She doesn't respond and he looks at me
Nat- she hasn't really been responding, she has a high fever, I'm trying to bring it down. Just go ahead.
I head back to the ED and Maggie immediately comes over
Maggie- how is she?
Nat- a bit better with high flow and after Rhodes suctioned her lungs.
Maggie- so not good
Nat- pneumonia and her fever doesn't want to come down so I'm worried about seizures. I think we should give her a shower later, maybe it will make her feel a bit better
Maggie- sure

I kept checking on her, she was managing with the high flow which was good. In the afternoon Antonio FaceTimed me
N- hi
A- hey, I wanted to give Gabby an update on Shay and she wanted to see her mom
N- I'm not sure if she's awake but you can try talking to her.
A- what's going on, why would she be sleeping?
N- sorry, I assumed someone told you. She's sick, probably the same cold as Shay
A- she doesn't usually get sick
N- Antonio
A- I know, it's different now. How is she?
N- she's been sleeping most of the day today. She has a fever and she's having a bit of trouble breathing
A- Shay has a cough, she had a bit of a fever but mostly just the cough
N- well what we've discovered the last 2 days is that it's really hard for Gabby to cough
A- what do you mean
N- her lungs are congested but she's not coughing. It took her a while to breathe on her own and she really struggles with controlling her muscles so it unfortunately makes sense that she can't cough. But that means she's not clearing her lungs so we have her on breathing treatments to help.
A- is she ok?
N- the treatments are starting to help, she's doing ok right now but it's only day 2. We're monitoring her closely. I'm heading to check on her again, you can talk to her.
I go to her room and set up my phone so they can see each other. She looks even worse
Nat- hey Gabby, how you doing?
She opens her eyes a bit and looks in my direction.
Nat- Antonio's on FaceTime, he wanted to talk to you
She looks towards my phone when I point to it then towards her device. She's trying to say something
A- hey sis, I hear you're sick too
Gabby- Shay
A- she's doing a lot better. She just has a cough, she had a bit of a fever but it went away with meds. She's mostly just tired
Gabby- me too tired
A- ya, you look tired. Nat said you've been sleeping all day
She didn't say anything else, just closed her eyes again.
Nat- that's the most she's said all day
A- I guess that's good then
Nat- Gabby I'm going to set up your breathing treatments again.
I get her all set up and explain everything to Antonio