This Morning's Update

All of last night and this morning, Blair has been super restless. Her sedation wasn't working well and she'd be sleeping and resting when all of the sudden she'd try to sit up and move like crazy. Spence says it was like Frankenstein and all of the sudden "She's Alive". Spence stayed up most of the night helping the nurse hold her arms down so she didn't rip of the ventilator tube and trying to keep her from moving her head around too much. This morning they have changed her sedation to a different kind of drug and increased the amount she's getting. She had to have a number of boluses (an extra amount of the sedation drug when she's extra wiggly) and they weren't really helping until the last five or ten minutes. In addition to the arm restraints, they've put things on her arms that make it so she can't bend her elbows so she can't reach her tube.

When the respiratory therapist came around this morning, we looked at her X-rays for the last few days and it looks like her right lung is significantly worse now then when she came in. It is, however, a little tiny bit better than it was yesterday. She also has a little fluid in the top of her right lung that isn't supposed to be there. It's not too much to worry about yet though.

Two days ago, they decided to reduce her "Peep" (the amount of air that needs to stay in her lungs to keep them inflated after the ventilator breathes for her). This morning, the RT thinks that she needs to go back up on her Peep again. They will decide this for sure when the doctor comes around a little later. The peep (and a few other things) has to be down significantly from the 8 she's on and the 9 they're moving her to before she's ready to be on her own.

Right now, they've got her on her left side trying to help out the right lung. She's finally holding still a little better and we'll update further when something else changes.