She doesn't like Sundays

It's Monday morning. Amelia was not stable enough to hold on Mother's Day, but Xina was okay with that. When we left to have dinner with my family, she was stable, but de-satting often, though she always came back up to acceptable levels. When we went to sleep last night, her gases were much better than they had been during the day. But when Xina checked on her early this morning around 6:20am, he gases were terrible, she was at 60bpm, 37pressure and 100% O2.. which are the highest settings she ever been on and the highest possible on the ventilator. (37pressure actually isn't the most, but they don't really like to go above that.)

So we took the dogs in (I got a speeding ticket) and rushed to the hospital. Our day today nurse is one of our primaries and suctioned her throat out. She's down to about 80% on the O2 level now (leaving it 100% for periods on end is really bad for the brain - especially the eyes, so we're glad that's down right now.) We're awaiting a new gas right now....which was better by a few degrees, but not where she needs to be.

We'll update later.

Noon update - her O2 level is down some more to 70%. He last gas was much better than the ones from this morning - basically the same range as the last one we saw last night. The clog that she had in her throat seems to be the main reason she turned south so quickly and it's unfortunate that one little thing set her back so extensively in a 8 hour period. She is sat-ting well right now. The doctor emphasized that growth is the most important thing for her right now, and that key to that growth is her tolerating/consuming all of her feeds. Thus far, she has been taking in all her feeds, and they even increased her feeding amount this afternoon. That's good news.

The Dr also said they are looking into her having a minor thyroid issue, which could be contributing to the fact that her urine output decreases when they take her off the steroids and dopamine. The Dr will be speaking to the endocronologists again. (They had been by once already and talked to Xina when I wasn't here a week ago or so, and they were not concerned at the time. But her current pattern may produce a few new wrinkles that need accounting).

We hope that by tonight, she will be able to get some weaning from the BPM (breaths per minute). It would be great to have the pressure down some, too, but they usually only start with one thing at a time. We're glad she's back to stable at the moment.

LAST UPDATE : Amelia has come back a little bit tonight; at night's end, she's sitting on 55bpm and 80% 02... they will attempt another wean on the BPM at midnight and check on it at 2am to see how she does. The clog set her back several days, but she seems to be out of the bad zone, and now the nurses know to suction her more often, which will help in the long run. She's also finished all her 10cc feeds - so in less than a week, they've doubled her food and she's had great diapers - much to the chagrin of the night nurse. Go stinky girl! Go!