No more Vent!

After the Vent with C-pap

With the Ventilator

So on Tuesday morning they took Ella off the ventilator. I was so glad I got to be here when they did it. And she did great. They tried going straight to a heated nasal canula which is just the little thing under their nose that gives a little bit of oxygen. She did well for awhile but they later had to put her back on the C-Pap. Something neither I or Ella are big fans of. C-Pap goes in the nose like canula but it's bigger, bulkier, and way more uncomfortable for her and she has a tendancy to just pull it out of her nose over and over. I guess she did okay during the afternoon when Lance was there but by the time I got back to the hosptial in the evening she was not at all happy about the C-Pap. She pulled it out any chance she got and after keeping 3 nurses in her room, for 3 hours straight they finally decided to take her off the C-Pap and try the canula again. And as soon as they did that, she was happy as a clam, and completely comfortable. I stayed the night that night and she seemed to do just great throughout the night but by morning they did a blood gas test on her (this tests the levels of oxygen and carbon dioxide in her blood to see if her blood is absorbing the extra well enough) and her levels were not as good as they should have been so it was BACK to the C-Pap. Lance said she struggled with it and wasn't too happy during the day but last night we had an awesome Nurse who took alot of time trying to get the C-Pap as comfortable for her as possible and it worked and she slept pretty much the whole night. You'll see from the pictures how uncomfortable it looks. Her poor little nose looks like it's being smashed and pulled apart at the same time. You'll also notice shiny stuff all over her eyes which is ointment for an infection she got in her poor little eyes. After doing a culture on the goopy stuff coming out of them, they determined that it was the same stuff that has been coming out of her lungs and proabably just spread to her eyes. For Lance and I this was actually good news because Maddi had been treated for pink eye on Sunday and when I walked in Ella's room Monday night and saw goopy stuff all over her eyes, I was scared to death that somehow she had caught Maddi's pinkeye (pretty difficult since children are not allowed in the NICU until RSV season is over!)

As far as a time frame for when she might come home, we haven't been given one by the nurses or doctors but they have said that it looks like she may be able to come off the C-Pap in the next couple of days and from there I think it's just a matter of her continuing to breathe without assistance and then learning to eat etc etc. She has been tolerating her feedings (through the tube) and they've been able to increase them each day which is good and so far her bowels have been doing what they should be. The Nurses joke that the NICU is the only place where people get excited about poop! But if they aren't pooping then it could be a sign of serious infection so stools are well watched here. :) The things you learn!