whew, glad that night is over. melanie bottomed out with a blood pressure of 67/39. i slept in her bed, taking her blood pressure off and on, until 3 a.m. at that point everything was still "off" but not getting worse. i went and laid in my bed and watched her SATS the rest of the night. this morning she is doing SO MUCH better! her blood pressure is still lower than usual but not critical. her heart rate is more normal, no more drooping eyelids, and she doesn't looked "drugged" anymore. she is still weaker than usual, hasn't walked more than a couple steps, and was too weak to stand up to have her ostomy emptied this morning. right now she is sitting on a chair in the kitchen playing with the magnetic words which has been a new thing she spends a lot of time doing. she is much less irritable; she and ethan even played little people on the floor together this morning. i am glad i waited it out last night and didn't take her to the ER; she is so much better this morning. but that was definitely the closest i've come to taking her to the ER during one of her autonomic responses to a crash. a "crash" is what we refer to when her body has expended too much energy, so her systems "crash." typically it involves excessive fatigue, irritability, mild weakness, eratic heart rates, sometimes low oxygen saturation, sometimes increased reverse motility, increased pain, etc. anyway, thank you so much for all your prayers. it was a scary, little-sleep night; but so glad we are home and not in the hospital! i increased her iv fluids, and she did have better urine output yesterday and her mouth doesn't sound as dry this morning.
