They ended up increasing her oxygen and she was still having breathing issues. She would also be resting and all of a sudden wake up, start screaming and flailing her arms. She did this when Tim and I were there and she desatted to 84 and was turning blue. Definitely a scary moment. She finally calmed down and they got her oxygen levels back to where they should be. Tim and I told the nurse we were going to go home for a few hours, shower, eat dinner and then one of us would be coming back to spend the night.
When we got home, Tim looked at his phone and realized he had a missed call. It was the PICU. You never want to see them calling because it's never good news. Avery had another episode when we were gone, screaming, flailing her arms, turning blue, and desatting. They decided the the high-flow cannula she was using wasn't working so they switched her to a RAM cannula. Not really sure of the difference because all I heard when they were explaining it was "this is pretty much the last step before she gets intubated". We definitely don't want her to get intubated. Babies are never comfortable when they have a tube down their throat and it's kind of the last resort. If the intubation doesn't help her, nothing really will. Plus, the 50 stitches she has her in mouth with most likely get ripped up when they try to intubate her and we would have to start that healing all over again. Definitely something we do NOT want to be doing.
She was still very fussy and they took her temp and it was 102.8. They gave her tylenol. Lately tylenol has seemed to really calm her down. Not this time. Still kicking, screaming, and after an hour, her fever was still 102.3. They decided to give her Motrin. She was still fussy after the Motrin so they gave her magnesium sulfate which they said would help relax the smooth muscles including her lungs and also gave her precedex which is a sedative. We have been wondering why they didn't try a sedative sooner.
Tim is spending the night at the hospital and I decided to come home and spend the night with the dogs. I was supposed to go back to work tomorrow but I will be spending the day at the hospital and sleeping over. Thankfully my new department understands and I really appreciate it. Not a great way to start a new job. Believe me, I would rather be working than going through all of this.
Tim and I have decided that one of us needs to be at the hospital at all times. It seems like they have really been slacking lately. Yesterday one of the doctors was just about to stick her finger in and feel the roof of Avery's mouth. I yelled Wait Wait Wait, you can't do that, she has 50 stitches in there. Then there was another instance regarding her feeding and they didn't realize she has a gtube. Then they kept saying "does she have a pacifier" when Avery is upset and we repeatedly have to tell them she can't have one because of the surgery. Every single person who walks in her room now gets the "She has 50 stitches in her mouth, do not stick anything in there" speech. I should have just recorded it because I am sick of repeating myself. I just wish they would do what they are supposed to do and look at her chart before trying to treat her.
They finally did a swab to see what (if any) type of virus Avery has. The results should be back tomorrow. They won't really treat it any differently but they decided to do the swab anyways. I am trying to get them to get another chest xray to rule out pneumonia or anything else. They did one when she was at Fairview yesterday but a lot can change with Avery in just a short amount of time.
I have taken some fun pictures of Avery this past weekend but I will post them once we are through with the PICU. Until then, sorry for the not so fun pics....
So sad the the elf had to visit Avery in the hospital :-( There will be more fun pics of him from home but I will have those in another post.
Transporting Avery to the PICU
Avery's new room in the PICU. Yep, Tim will be sleeping on that cushioned bench tonight.
One of the VERY few times Avery was sleeping
Avery's new cannula and breathing machine.
She is not having fun here. Look at all the things she is hooked up to
Her best friends at home miss her. I said Avery's name when we were at home today and Chewie's ears perked up and he got all excited. It was so cute.
No comments:
Post a Comment