Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Myrna's Breathing Rate Improves

Myrna's breathing rate by Monday, finally came down to 9 per 15 seconds (normal is 6.) It was a high of 12 with last Wednesday's heart attack. This hopefully means her heart rate has returned to normal (it was very high last Friday) and her blood pressure is up (it was low on Friday.)

I told the cardiologist and she said that "Even with compromised cardiac function, the cardiovascular system has numerous ways of compensating...(seems) she's finally recuperating from the event. This should correlate to an increase in blood pressure, but her BP should be checked when she goes in for x-rays and laboratory testing. The clot sitting within her heart probably has not moved...Symptoms come about when small fragments of the clot detach and enter the blood stream, where they may end up clogging an artery. As far as the clot in the coronary artery (that one caused her heart attack), we'll never really know if that's still there or when it's been broken down. Her heart has the ability to develop "collateral circulation" to the area of the heart muscle that has been deprived of blood flow, which helps her recuperate from her heart attack."

Her energy level is up as well although she is more easily exhausted than before the heart attack.  We are not encouraging play but not ignoring her when she brings a toy either.  We sit quietly with her and roll things around or get a string toy out which she can play with without running around.

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