If you’ve followed Katja’s journey in the past, you’ll remember the curse of Day 3. If not you can read about it in her blog updates under “Giving up is not an option”.

For some reason after every ohs on Day 3 we hit a pain wall and have a set back. I try so hard to avoid it but it seems to always happen.

Today was no exception. She started her morning off great with a 2nd surprise ice cream delivery from John (Thank you John! 🥰) which she very much enjoyed after breakfast.

Around 11am the Attending came in and said it was drain removal and pace wires removal time. Katja was given IV pain meds and mild sedation so she wouldn’t remember. Everything went super smoothly with that.

About an hour after drain removal she awoke with a pounding headache. Her BPs have been creeping up overnight since her 2nd immunosuppressant medication had been added on but now they were averaging 145/110. After 30 mins she was crying that her head felt like it would explode.

A few calls to Cardiology/Neurology and they decided to give her more Dilaudid to help. She passed out again and continued to have really high BPs while her CellCept (other immunosuppressant) infused. Luckily she slept through that. Out of nowhere her BPs dropped back to normal after sleeping for 3hrs and she just woke up feeling totally fine.

Her team is a bit confused as to what caused it but she’ll be started back up on her BP medication tonight to hopefully prevent it from happening again. Maybe it’s a side effect from immunosuppressant therapy, maybe the pain from chest tube removal or maybe it’s the Day 3 curse. Either way, today was a slight setback.

She is still in the CICU but only because step down hasn’t had an open bed the last 2 days. Once one is available she’ll head over.

She’s feeling good now. Happily eating her food and more ice cream 😉