Friday May 23, 2008

Maggie took a huge step forward today, which was a big surprise to her parents (and Nurses). She upgraded from her ventilator to a cpap (continues positive air pressure). The transition called for extubation (tube removal) of her ET tube and moving to nose prongs. The new device requires quite a different set-up as there is a large tube that goes to her nose and around her head and she has to wear a hat to keep it strapped on. Maggie isn’t really fond of having something stuck up her nose. She tends to try to pull it out, which unfortunately is fairly easy to do. So, the story goes that Dr. Kuneta decided after looking at her chart in the afternoon that she was ready to take that big step between ventilator minimum regulated breaths and letting her breathe on her own. He also put her back on 3 doses of Decadron to give her that little burst. The Nurses didn’t even expect that step this week, so they prepared us that she might be a little unstable. However, she did quite well! The still have the option of turning up her oxygen percentages, but otherwise, Maggie is pretty much on her own for taking breaths!

Evie is also improving, she is still riding the Decadron wave and was able to decrease her pressures and minimum breaths on the ventilator. However, her lung x-ray showed some haziness on her left side, so the positioned her mostly on her ride side all day. Both girls continue to handle their feedings well and increase how much they receive daily. They also had another day of kanga care, Evie with Mom and Maggie with Dad. It was after kanga care that they switched Maggie’s breathing apparatus – and Dad hung out and watched the production. We, of course, had great chats with the night nurses, Barbara and Kristin, after they threatened to call Child Protective Services after we didn’t show up at our usual time of 8:15 pm or so. We arrived around 9pm because we were a bit delayed on our dinner.