Amelia has a wonderful sense of time. While Xina and I had forgotten that it was Sunday, AE knew, and she decided to revert to her old ways and have a minor crash. Early in the morning, she had another apnea/brady episode, and her O2 needs continued to rise throughout the day today. While Xina was holding her, AE had yet another episode, and it took our nurse some time to get her back up. When I finally arrived at the hospital we went to find out what they were going to do. It seemed as if Amelia was getting tired, and might need re-intubation. While we were waiting for the doctor to come and talk, AE decided I needed to be around for another episode. She began satting in the 70s (her wanted range is 85-95) and was 100% O2, and her heart rate was erratic. The doctor asked for an Xray and a blood gas. Then her sats fell to the 40s and wouldn't come up. All this while waiting for the doctor and RT people to come help. Our nurse was sure they were going to intubate her. She called the doctor again and the doctor came and listened to her. She ordered up some epinephrine to open up her passages. They did the blood gas and xray - and her gas was a 115.. which I don't ever recall seeing... that's not good at all. But the epinephrine seemed to have an immediate effect, as her sats started coming up pretty quickly. Eventually they became normal, and they did another gas a few minutes later, which was 108, but showed improvement in a short period. They also held a feed during the process, not wanting to bother her more with digesting food.
The whole episode lasted for a good hour+, and by the end of it, they did not have to intubate her. Our night primary nurse got some good suctioning in her nose and pulled out a lot of crud and nice sized troll bogie. By the time the shift change was over and I got back in the pod, she was down to 50% O2. So bascially, we went from thinking she'll go back on the vent, to gaining another night on CPAP. She is now eating, sleeping, and satting in a good range.
The plan is to get another blood gas soon and and make sure everything is helping. She'll continue with her albuterol treatments and if they need to add the epinephrine again, they will. they can also give her a single dose of steroids to help her through. They really don't want to re-intubate her.
I personally think Amelia is upset her boyfriend Nathan is going home on Monday. He's been out of the pod since Friday in a "care by parent" room in the Ronald McDonald area, and I think she's lonely. Xina and I wish Nathan and his parents the best of luck and would apreciate it if you all could send him some positive energy and prayers. They are great parents and will take care of him wonderfully. Good luck y'all; I'll work on drawing up dowry documents later in the year.
2 comments:
We are sorry that Amelia had a scary day, but we are glad she came through it without going back to the vent. She has to be so strong. We will keep up the prayers for strength, progress, hope, faith- and for Nathan, too! Love, Bridget
We are praying for her!!!
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