Thoracic update, 23 Oct

Dr. Topalidis came by at 2:30. Ruth, Keeng and I were here. Dad and Sarah returned from lunch to catch the last 5 minutes or so. Dr. Topalidis believes that yesterday's pleurodesis was successful. The x-ray reveals her lung has expanded, which suggests that the bleomycin did it's job in fusing the lung to the chest wall. About the chest tube incident: Dr. Topalidis had given orders that Grandma be turned every 30 minutes to distribute the bleomycin as thoroughly as possible. The tubing was likely disconnected during one of the turns. He will speak to the nurse and nursing manager about being more careful; as it is, it is unfortunate that Grandma even had to have the second chest tube inserted. The chest tube can come out when the doctors determine that the chest tube output has slowed sufficiently. Dr. Topalidis will be consulting with Dr. D'Agostino (his boss) about that. It is unlikely it will come out today.