Saturday, December 8, 2012

Improving?

Anya stayed stable all day but did not really improve as much as was hoped. She did tolerate a small wean on the percentage of oxygen, but not much. Her heart rate was lower than it has been (in a good way). She scared some of the PICU staff with her breathing. Shortly before I came in she started breathing at over 100 breaths a minute. When I walked in a nurse and a resident were standing over her bed, they had turned up her oxygen, even though her saturation was fine. There was no good reason why Anya did this, it was during a feed but nothing else stressed her out at the time. I seriously wonder if it was something she frequently does, and I don’t notice, because I don’t routinely count her respirations.

When we were preparing for discharge from the NICU I attempted to learn when I needed to worry about her respiration count, but it never was a good way to determine how she was doing, her breathing bounces all over the place. If she looks comfortable and isn’t crabby or excessively sleepy, pale, or sweaty I figure she is ok. I requested/advised/tried not to step on toes and said to wait to turn up her oxygen for an actual desaturation, to see if this increased rate impacts anything. Later in the day she had another episode during a feed and they watched her, they stopped her feed and vented her and she did just fine.

Anya’s personality has blossomed over the past couple of days. She has rarely been cranky and flirts with everyone. When she is fussy or seems hungry she stops when she sees me hook up her feeding tube. After the episode of increased respirations we were questioning whether it should be continued. I showed her the tube and asked her if she wanted it, and she stared so intently at it, it was obvious she did.

I am happy she is doing well but am anxious to get her home. It is hard to get in the Christmas spirit when one of your kids is in the hospital. It is also hard on Arwen to be bounced around again. Everything is still pointing to a very slow recovery; it is difficult to say when she will be home.

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