Magnolia was taken off her sedative at 10:00 am this morning and so far (I can't believe I am typing this - I hope I don't jinx it!) has been doing okay. She gets a little agitated but we have been able to calm her back down relatively quickly.
The doctors started to wean Magnolia off the vent starting at 10:30 am and she is currently breathing on her own with the vent still in. They have the vent set on the spontaneous setting meaning if Magnolia does not breathe for some reason the vent will alarm and breathe for her. The RT did a little test where she covered the ventilation tube with her thumb and watched to see what Magnolia did. Well...Magnolia freaked out and started squirming around. Apparently that means that she is unable to breathe around the tube. The RT, nurse and doctors are worried that her throat could possibly have a lot of swelling and that swelling is right up against the tube not allowing her to breathe around it. They fear if they take the tube out the swelling will continue and may close her airway. So Magnolia just received a steroid injection in her central line to help reduce the swelling. Magnolia has a extremely small airway and mouth and the doctor removing her tube really does not want to be in a crisis situation after extubation. Obviously neither do we. The plan is to try the 'thumb test' again and see how she does after the steroid has a chance to work. If she passes the 'thumb over the tube' test then we will run a blood gas and if that looks good they will extubate. I am sure there is a medical term for the test but my brain is too full right now to take in new terminology. Is this how my students feel?
Ohhh and a resident came in to check on Magnolia a little bit ago and we had just gotten her calmed down. Mind you 2 doctors had already been in to check her out as well as 4 nurses. So when he got his mask and gloves on and walked over to her bed I stopped him. I kindly asked what he was needing to check and if it was absolutely necessary that it be done right now because if not he needed to wait until later. I said our goal is to keep her calm and get the vent out! He politely walked out.
Love and support coming your way.
ReplyDeleteOh, My... I'm in tears.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all I'm happy for all positive steps Magnolia is making. I know she cannot be healed and recovered overnight, it will probably take a little bit of time for her to knock down issues one by one. So every little step is a big change for the better.
I'm so proud of you that you stepped in and asked the resident to come later, way to go! I don't know if I would be able to do that if I were you, but I admire you for it.
Magnolia is one very lucky girl with a mom like you. Hugs.
I'm glad to hear that Magnolia is progressing and I agree with Mihaela about you advocating for your daughter but I already know what an amazing mom you are and what a wonderful family Magnolia has! Thinking of all of you daily and sending love your way! Once again, thanks for the updates...kisses for Nolie from Jay and me!
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