Tuesday Afternoon

It's been a nice comeback for AE today.
This morning, she was still having a little trouble, but not worse than yesterday or Sunday. After suctioning her out multiple times, though, our primary nurse decided it was time to do something about it and the heads of state ordered her up some extra therapy. Bascially, she is not getting rid of the fluid buildup in her lungs quickly enough, so mucusy fluid is building up at the base of her throat where her breathing tube comes in. Sunday it caused a plug - little air was getting through. Monday night and into Tuesday morning saw much of the same, though they were sunctioning her every 6 hours. Nevertheless, it was still an issue. This morning, they decided to not only bag and suction, but to also add a mister into the ventilation to help break up the mucus and ordered a CPT, which is a therapy where they basically pound on her back (as if she needed burping). They do it every 6 hours for 48hrs. After her first session today, her first gas got much better - the weaned her BPMs down a tad - and the second was a tad better on the new setting. (They just came by to do it again, but she's on her back now, so they pounded on her chest... she DID NOT like that at all! She sat low, so he stopped it and will try again later). So the new minor treatment has helped tremendously. The hope is that with the air now passing into the lungs, the lungs will clear more of the liquid out and the mucus won't congregate at that point. Her lungs are still pretty full and diseased out, but she's much more stable now than Sunday or Monday.

She's been resting comfortably all afternoon, and has barely fought any of the handling she's been getting. Her sats have been very stable and there's little variance in her O2 sat measurements. Yeah! She's up to 13ccs of food a sitting and consuming it all... another good thing.

Tonight she weighs 1480grams... 3lbs 4ozs... sounds good, but she's probably 6-8ozs overweight with extra fluid. Nevertheless, Xina and I feel so much better knowing her little set back was only a little set back and easily correctable. More importantly, Amelia is feeling lots better. Now if she'd only pee.

http://www.lyricsfreak.com/m/moody+blues/tuesday+afternoon_20313611.html