She Is Well on Her Way of Recovery 一場虛驚

Except for a little false alarm of last night, our patient is well on her way of recovery. Her lung capacity has reached up to 1,750 ml today whereas that number was 2,000 ml before surgery.


除了昨晚的一場虛驚，我們的病患在穩步的恢復中。今天在呼吸訓練師面前，竟然一口氣能吸到1，750 毫升，術前也不過才 2，000 毫升而已。


Of course, she herself is very much encouraged by the comments and observations by Dr. Hsieh, medical professionals and nurses who come to check her out now and then. She is very motivated to walk and practice all the technics following the instructions by her breathing trainer.


謝大夫，護士們還有進進出出，連筆者也記不清的各式各樣醫護人員都對我們病患的恢復給以肯定。士氣大增的她越加努力地練習呼吸和下床走路。


She starts to eat rice porridges three times today with lots of pickled cucumbers and a slice of bread.


今天三餐吃粥配以個類的醬瓜，外帶一片麵包（吐司)。

One may wonder what is about the false alarm of last night. Well, to lighten up the subject since many a time, it weights heavy in our hearts. Here is what happened Sunday.


關心的人或許會問，到底發生了一場什麼虛驚。大家一直對手術的進程和病人的反應提心吊膽，也該讓各位輕鬆輕鬆了。事情是這樣的：

Within 24 hours of surgery, her feet were on the floor and she started to practice breathing technics, aided by all those breathing apparatus. Everyone saw her was quite positive of the progress she made. However, she was getting anxious and complained that she got short breath, chest tightness and discomfort on left shoulder while she was assured by nurses again and again, those should be temporal and would all go away soon.

我們的主角在術後不到二十四小時就能夠下地行走，練習呼吸。見到的人都給予她肯定和鼓勵。捱過兩次刀的病人，或許一時還無法揮去心有餘悸的陰影，不時地抱怨呼吸短促，胸悶，左肩隱隱作痛，護士們也安慰她這些都會漸漸好起來。

Then the hypodermic needle about her IV drugs shifted stemming from her hand movements,  hence the back of her hand with needle got swollen up. Very bad. The nurse was forced to switch the needle to different arm and then hand after few tries because her vein was the kind hard to spot and nail.

午後，因為手部的不停移動，點滴的針頭跑掉了，右手腫得像個饅頭。護士不得已要換手肘，然後手背，花了一番功夫才又找到一根血管。要找她的靜脈，確實不是一件容易的事。

Starting late afternoon, say around 4:00 PM with aforementioned situations, she hit a panic button that she would be out of breath soon and won't survive the night if doctor didn't do something dramatic. The whole night this writer had to constantly bug the nurse on-duty to comfort her by telling her that she was fine. Then she ran to the bathroom very 15 min. towards the late part of the night so as to divert her attention about the shortness of her breath. Not sure if anyone could decipher this behavior. The tug of war ensued about 8 some hours. At the approach of midnight, either out of exhaustion or tricks to calm her down, Michael together with the nurse draw the last ultimatum by telling her that she shouldn't expect as smooth breathing as Michael whom had a full lung while 1/5 of her lung was gone, and worst came worst, even if she stopped breathing herself the night, the breather hooked up to her nostril would carry her through.


綜合上述情形，下午四時左右，病患開始煩躁不安，不斷反复自言自語又是看護的筆者說，“我沒法呼吸，我想我過不了今晚。我沒法呼吸，我···”不得已，永強要三番五次地求救於護士，不足地安慰她。仍然無濟於事，她用上廁所的方式，讓自己分心，少想一些呼吸的事。如廁的頻率越來越高，到了後段，變成每15分鐘一次。沒人能理解這是什麽一種行為。就這樣前後折騰了八小時之久。接近午夜時，精疲力盡的筆者與當班的護士耐著性子嘗試著最後通牒，“你才切掉了一片肺葉，怎麼可能要求像永強這樣的順暢呼吸。”“即便停止了呼吸，插在鼻孔的呼吸管子可以讓你度過這一夜。”


Not sure what hit her at that moment, the woman seized by some imaginative fears, came to realization she wasn't making sense at all and went back to sleep the rest of the night.

我們的病患像是被點醒了，乖乖地回到床上，一覺睡到天亮。

Otherwise this piece of update would be titled, Sleepless in Veteran Generals Hospital at Taipei. Thanks God, ours is a single room. Imaging what if we had a roommate. Our patient remains a very good girl most of the time nevertheless.

否則這貼報告的題目就成了，"台北榮總不眠夜"。還在我們住的是單人房，試想一下如果住在雙人房，同房的病患和看護會如何反應。但話又說回來，我們的病患人不失為一個模範生。