Day 13: Failed Attempt

This morning when the doctors did their rounds, they decided they would extubate Blair around mid-day. They started her on some medication to help her deal with coming off of the medications she's been on for two weeks and they got prepared to take out the tube.

A couple of hours later the respiratory therapist came and suctioned her and her tape was pulling off her mouth, so they began getting ready to extubate her soon. They warned us a couple of times that there was a 5 percent chance that she'd have to be re-intubated. I wasn't worried though- certainly we weren't that 5 percent.

When they pulled the tube out, they immediately put a nasal cannula on her to get her some additional oxygen. She desaturated a little, but nothing to worry about. Soon after pulling out the tube, her little chest began jerking and working super hard to breathe. The doctors listened to her and decided her airway was closing off. This happens because of the irritation in her throat from the tube that has been in her for two weeks. Her lungs were healthy enough to breathe on their own, but her airways were so closed off that it was as if she was breathing through a coffee straw.

They decided that she needed to be re-intubated. This time they used a smaller tube because her lungs are healthier and they began steroids so that her airway can heal. They will leave the new tube in for a couple of days and then give it another try.

Watching my little girl go through this was really hard. I was sitting in the chair so I couldn't see everything and Spence was standing by her when they pulled out her tube. It was a couple of minutes between pulling out the first tube and deciding to do another and when I saw her little body going nuts, I had to leave the room. My poor mom probably couldn't understand a thing I said when I called crying like crazy during the whole thing. Spence said they added another fast-acting paralytic before they re-intubated her and it went smoothly.

Blair is sleeping now and back to her higher doses of sedation. Hopefully they can help her be pretty comfortable this afternoon. Her respirator settings are still super low and she's saturating well- all we need is an open airway. We appreciate all prayers as we wait to try this again later this week.