Struggling

She is on her home bi-pap settings.  She has not woken up today at all.  Very sleepy.  Of course they were coming in jiggling her on the vest every 4 hours during the night.  So it's understandable.  Plus she is still really sick.

So after they did her vest treatment she dropped her sats (she did fine during the treatment) into the 70's with the bi-pap on.  We tried repositioning her etc...the breaths of air were just not making it in.  Her chest was not rising and falling with each breath.

So we had to have a Respiratory Therapist come in.  He raised her bi-pap settings and that seemed to help.  After a half hour or so of dropping down, coming back up on her sats she leveled off and has done OK since then.

So I think she is improving slowly and getting better.  But it seems scarier (with the drops in sats) being extubated.

I was going to go to lunch right now...but now the nurse is going...so I feel like I have to wait until he gets back.  That's OK-who needs to eat anyway?

So the new plan is that after they do a vest treatment to put her on a higher bi-pap setting (higher than her home settings) for about an hour to help her recover.

I thought she was doing better being intubated.  She wasn't dropping her sats, she was awake.

However, now she is actually coughing up junk, which is what needs to happen.

Sometimes if you are pushing so much pressure into the lungs all of the time it forces the junk to stay in, it doesn't allow you to cough it up.

So the RT (Respiratory Therapist) today (the one that dashed over when she was dropping, not her real RT) suggested perhaps even going on the nasal canula while she does the vest to allow that stuff to be shook loose.  (If she can tolerate it.)