No extubation today. Hannah’s chest xray looks unchanged since last Tuesday, and they are still suctioning a lot of yellowy junk from her lungs, so they wanted to give her another day on the vent. They ended up doing another CPAP trial again today, for 60 minutes, and she did great.
They seem to believe she won’t have any problem breathing off the vent — the big question mark is what will she do if she feels the congestion again — will she have another breath-holding spell which may turn into seizure? Will she just gag and cough like she normally does?
She is still incredibly hard to keep sedated. Today they have used a combination of Versed, Fentanyl, Chloral hydrate, Pentabarb, and Precedex (the last two which are really heavy duty). She still has a lot of difficulty staying sedated, even at incredibly high levels of medicine. They are going to start weaning her down off the IV drip sedation (Versed, Fentanyl, and Precedex) and started giving her methadone and Ativan via IV. So she has been on SEVEN different sedation meds today, used in combination.
The nurses in the PICU have nicknamed her the “Texas Tornado” because she really does thrash around when the sedation starts wearing off. She tries to break out of her wrist restraints (succeeded a few times), pull out her Central line in her leg, and she is giving herself her own physical therapy in her legs because she kicks a lot. She also keeps trying to turn herself on her stomach, probably because she never sleeps on her back!
We will see if they will be ready to extubate tomorrow. If they do extubate, she will be in the PICU for at least an addition 24 hours once that is done just to monitor her and to wean her sedation meds.
We will see what tomorrow brings for my little “Texas Tornado.”
She sounds like she is ready mama, its not gonna be a real fun day, I think she is gonna be ticked. But the day will be great since will get the tube out.
Praying the virus is not affecting her anymore and all this tube stuff will be over soon and she will be healthy enough for you both to give each other a nice hug.
Its heartening to hear about all the medical interventions on a baby. But praying all that little Hannah is going through now will be over soon and she should be stable and healthy and happy.
I love that she’s showing her feisty personality to the nurses! She’s such a fighter! I was talking to my mom and aunt today (both nurses) about wrist restraints – I asked what they did with patients that wouldn’t stay in bed as Evan is climbing out of his – and they said they use wrist restraints, though wouldn’t explain in enough detail that I’d be able to try it at home. 😉 Hearing about your little tornado breaking out of hers has me thinking, she and Evan would be great partners in crime.
Many thoughts and prayers going your way right now.
The Texas Tornado…I love it.
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Carrie,
What an appropiate nickname for Hannah “Texas Tornado” cos that fits her little personality ! Shes a fighter through and through!
Susan
I found my way over from another blog and just want to leave you a note of support. I will be carrying Hannah’s story in my heart.