Day 68

A nice, calm day with several moves in the right direction. Feedings were increased, vent settings decreased. Anya no longer has a UAC. I have never defined it in the blog, it is basically an IV that goes into the belly button, using the vessels there. It is not only an IV line, it also is where they get the all-important blood gases, and her blood pressure was continually checked through it.

I am very happy about this for several reasons. For one they must think she is doing a lot better to take it out; there is so much information that can be gotten from it with the blood pressure and gases. Another reason is that it got rid of a lot of wires with it: the sedative she was on (versed) is not compatible with other drips she was getting, so it went through the UAC. To help keep it from clotting off they had an infusion of what I call ‘heprin lite’ running through it. The tubes that helped monitor blood pressure were hooked up to this as well. When I held her managing all of this junk was a big mess; three plus tubes to work with. The UAC is also very narrow; similar to the width of embroidery thread, or even smaller. If they come out on accident they bleed like mad, so it was nerve-racking worrying about it when I was holding her. It also was getting very old: the longer something like that is there the more likely an infection will crop up. Anya has been infection free; a miracle in my opinion, with all of the routes of infection she has had. Anyway, I am glad it is gone.

Because there is not a second place for the non-compatible versed to go, they have put her on oral versed that she gets about every six hours. I did not mess with her much today to let her get used to it-being on a IV medicine continuously and an oral version intermittently do not always work the same. She was a little irritable for a bit but slept soundly or was actively, happily awake for the rest of my visit. Arwen comes with my sister in law Valerie in about a week; I am praying she is off the vent and tolerating it well by then!