Day 14: Going Backwards Again

Yesterday afternoon was fairly uneventful- just how we like it. That was no longer the case when evening came. Blair has been having so many secretions suctioned out of her tube lately, but last night, she began throwing up stuff too. Throwing up is not part of the plan. There were a few occurrences of large amounts of green and yellow bile and things coming up. It was so sad to watch. Her little face was bright red and tears were coming down her face.

Last night Blair lost all color in her face and her eyes were dark and sunken in. Our poor little girl looks as sick now as she did the day she came. They also had to increase her peep from a 5 to a 9 and they increased her O2 percentage from 25 percent to 60 to 80 percent. Even with the increases in her respirator settings, Blair wasn't getting good oxygen saturation.

They did a few x-rays last night to see if her feeding tube had moved and was no longer in the right place and to see if she has aspirated anything in her lungs. This morning they decided to get a new feeding tube because it was right on the edge of where it should be and they hope that will help her stop throwing up. As far as the aspiration goes, they couldn't see anything on the x-ray, but they said sometimes it takes a couple of days to see it better.

Blair woke up off and on all last night and Spence stayed up until 5:30am because he was so worried about her and he wanted to hear the results of all of her tests. Nothing was very conclusive though. She may have just had a big setback due to the extubation and re-intubation that happened yesterday.

This morning when the doctors came for rounds, they were still unsure what was causing all of the problems. They are planning to try to wean down her O2 and peep as they can, but so far that isn't working at all. Her little body won't tolerate it. Spence thinks she may have gotten another bug, maybe the flu or something, that is making her so sick again and it wouldn't surprise me at all. She really looks sick again despite the fact that her chest x-rays this morning looked like they were still getting better. Waiting and wondering is so hard. It is comforting to know that she has her very own nurse 24 hours a day though, so they'll watch for anything that comes up. With everything that has happened in the last 24 hours, it isn't likely that they'll try to re-extubate her anytime soon unless a major miraculous recovery happens. It looks like the best we can hope for at this point is sometime this weekend.

One good thing happened last night though. They moved Blair to a different room. For the last two weeks, we've been in a room with no windows and only curtains separating us from another patient. In the middle of the night they moved Blair to what feels like a suite. It has windows on two walls and a lot more space. Her TV also has a DVD player now which will make it easier to watch movies. We've been trying to prop our laptop on her bed so she could see it when she wanted to watch something. Another plus- the bathroom is right outside her door. If we're going to be here for a month, (which it feels like at this point) at least we're a little more comfortable now.

Blair is getting used to the drill here. She has figured out that if she bites down as hard as she can, the nurses can't suction her tube out. It takes some serious persuasion to get her to open. Yesterday she also learned how to take her arm restraints off. Bad news. She did look pretty pleased with herself when it happened though. She's so sneaky that if one person is turning their back for even a second, they always have to make sure someone else has an eye on her.

Last night- the picture doesn't look near as bad as real life did. It was such a scary crazy night.
This morning she has slept a lot. Hopefully her little body is recovering from everything that has happened lately.

Her respirator settings this morning. Back to a high peep.

More friends and neighbors have sent stuff over (for both kids- so thoughtful) and Blair has enjoyed looking at all of the balloons. She can't really move enough to see the posters and cards on her wall yet, but she'll love them when she can see them.

The kids from Joy School sent this poster and some valentines for both Blair and Davis.

Yesterday and today have been pretty stressful and emotional. I think I've cried about a hundred times in the last day or so. It is so hard to see our baby look so sick and be so uncomfortable, but we really appreciate all of your prayers, calls, emails, and comments. We feel so blessed to have such a great support system.