HEART AND KIDNEY STATUS

Ron's blood pressure stayed a bit elevated overnight. They started him on dialysis once again ...his kidney function became a bit sluggish yesterday so that decided to start the dialysis rather than wait for anything to get worse. He was doing fine this morning with the exception of his blood pressure...which had me a bit concerned. I had questioned if he had been put back on his beta blocker...and he had not. I went down to grab some breakfast in the cafeteria...when I returned ...he was in atrial fibrillation again...his heart rate was as high as 147 bpm. His blood pressure was still elevated at the time. Dr. Copeland was on the floor...so we had him assess the situation. He was fine with the nurse putting him back on the beta blocker he was on. His blood pressure is back to normal range but his heart rate is still elevated...it may take some time to get him out of atrial fibrillation. He was in it for two days earlier this week. Until they know for sure that he is in rejection of any kind ..they will not increase his anti-rejection meds...because if he is septic...this would only cause more harm than good. We had hoped to bring him off the ventilator today but now we need to wait to get his heart rate under control and the doctors want to try and remove more fluid off of him. The cultures for the pneumonia did show negative results for fungus..which is a very good thing. They put him on a new antibiotic for the pnuemonia...naphacyllin....I don't know much about this antibiotic. The blood cultures are still coming back negative ..which is a good thing. I am still hopeful the only thing we are battling right now is the pneumonia. I hope we can get his heart rhythm back to normal and that his kidney function will bounce back quickly with no signs of rejection.