Scary Episode

Posted on July 21, 2005

Tagged brad : Yikes!

Brad had been resting pretty much all morning. About 12:30, I went down to the room where they deliver a lunch tray for the patient to steal his food and eat it.

The nurse was concerned this morning about his shallow breathing. He was resting well, but not drawing enough oxygen in. While I was down the hall eating, she decided to move him up on the bed a little bit to try to wake him up. She became alarmed when he wouldn't talk to her while they moved him. About the time I came back, she was asking another nurse to call Dr. McCloud while she prepared some medicine to take away the effects of the morphine. I could tell she thought it was really serious. He had a glassy stare and would hardly say a word. The nurse shot in that anti-morphine stuff and he began hurting immediately, even while the medicine was going in. He was saying he was fat and generally talking out of his head.

Next, the pain started. Even though it was excruciating pain, it served the purpose of getting him awake and breathing correctly again. He just about couldn't stand it, though. He said it was worse than in the recovery room.

After about 7 or 8 minutes, Elaine started him back on the morphine, but at a lower dose. It took a little while to kill that pain, but he came on back to earth. He said that at one point he thought he was only bones, a heart and lungs. At another point, he thought he was fat, then figured out it was the pillows. Morphine is powerful. I'm just glad Rhonda wasn't there during the episode.

Reverend Joe came by and said a prayer with us. Brad really seemed to appreciate that.