Yesterday was a GREAT day. Mae slept in till after 11am after a couple of feedings in between of course. She had zero deep suctioning and far less olive tip suctioning (basically a bulb syringe with the power vacuum) She was having good output with her diapers (although she was on the IV for that.) Her breathing although crackly most of the day was still doing much better and while she still was working harder than she should she was working far less than she was the day before.
Mae was content and had a good nap around 2 and so I was able to venture down to the cafeteria (and out of the room period) for the first time in nearly 30 hours. I grabbed myself some lunch and even spent a little time browsing in the gift shop. For nearly 20 minutes I was 'on the outside!' sorta... It was good and a nice break.
Upon my return she started to stir and was a happy little girl. Awaking and smiling at me. Cozy in her little burrito. Our day was filled with far fewer doctor's visits because she was doing so well! That was encouraging that we only saw Dr. Mike 3 times. The day before we saw him much more often. We even had some playtime the two of us. I broke out some of our toys that I carry in the diaper bag and we played and batted at toys.
We had a minor set back around 4pm when her oxygen levels dropped from around 100 down to 82. I believe though that the pesky culprit was her new and fancy boxing glove. Yes they finally after two and a half days of having her monitor on her foot, moved it to her hand. I think she was messing with it too much and not getting a good read on it, but to be safe her oxygen was bumped back up to 0.5 from the 0.2 it had been at all morning. Siigh. By bedtime it was lowered to 0.4.
Every four hours Mae continued to receive her respiratory therapy. She handled those treatments well - which involve the RT literally banging with a tool on her chest and back. She actually smiles while it is being done, I think she finds the rhythm soothing. Another tool they use, mostly when she is asleep is a vibrator that acts in the same manor - to loosen up the mucus plugged areas. Often after a treatment she gets a good cough in to move along some of the loosened junk - or perhaps an extra suction with the olive tip. At 4am it was different... and a little scary.
The RT came in and began his typical routine - same one he had done around 1am that Mae and I both slept through. At 4am though she was a tiny bit more alert and woke up, mostly I think because she realized that she was hungry (it was about 4+ hours from her last feeding) he continued to do the vibrations. At one point her oxygen desaturated to 67 - monitors are not happy at that level. :( They turned up her oxygen to 0.9 and ended up doing the deep suction a couple of times and removing some THICK mucus. Her O2 levels began to come back up and she was mad as hell. After calming her down, getting her some milk and having her fall asleep next to me - she was right with the world again. The nurse came in a little after 5 and put her back in her own bed.
Since morning has arrived her O2 has been turned down twice, first to 0.7 and just recently to 0.5. She has needed deep suction one more time as it was obvious she was working harder to breathe. However, she is still doing well. Loving Husband arrived around 10am with a card in hand made by him and my boy. It made me cry - I miss him so much. It officially is the longest I've been away from Ace and it hurts. He's doing pretty well and I am so thankful that LH is in a position to be able to stay at home with him even though he really does need to be working.
The doctor came in just before LH arrived and he said something that made me so happy. She's sounding better, almost entirely clear on one side!! Praise the Lord! I am hopeful she will continue to trend up, up and away from this hospital - but I am content to stay as long as she needs to get well.
2 comments:
poor thing!! I hope she gets better soon! Shes a trooper :)...heck, and so are you!
That picture of LH with her breaks my heart. :( You can see the sadness and worry in his eyes.
I'm glad that she's doing better now! You are doing amazing hanging in there. This long in the hospital is brutal, but then again, I was never able to sleep well at all in the hospital.
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