Tuesday, November 07, 2006

A rollercoaster day...

When Jen arrived at the PICU early this morning, Nate was having a difficult time. He was fussy, irritated and had lots of junk in his throat and lungs. She repositioned him and the Respiratory Therapist (RT) started his breathing treatment. Once we got him coughed and suctioned out his nasal passages, he seemed to be in better mood and the rest of the morning went pretty well.

Dr. Carey made his morning rounds and we got to review Nate’s chest x-ray with him. The left lung shows a slight improvement but there is some “haziness” in the right lung. He still has diminished airflow on the left side but the slight improvement was something to be happy about. We’ll do another x-ray in a day or so.

He took another late-morning nap which was interrupted but us having to use the Cough Assist Machine on him. We have been “coughing” him after every breathing treatment in order to help get out some of the gunk that is down in his lungs. Earlier in the day, we had talked to Sharon, the PICU nurse, and Jo Anne, the RT, about all of the mucus and junk that we suction out of Nate’s nasal passages and how much this concerns us. Jo Anne offered to show us a way to “flush out” his nasal passages rather than suction them out.

As she was showing us this technique, Nate started to struggle and Jen could immediately tell that some of the saline solution and some of the junk from his nasal passages had gone down his throat. Before we could suction out his mouth and throat, he aspirated (inhaled) some of the stuff and proceeded to get choked. His O2 saturation plummeted and the PICU nurses came running since his airway was blocked again. He started turning blue and his O2 saturation level had dropped to the 20s in a matter of seconds so they proceeded to bag him and suction his throat until he got back into the 90s. The RT and I quickly put on the BiPAP but O2 level proceeded to drop so once again they started bagging him. They were finally able to clear his airway so we put the BiPAP on and he was able to maintain the needed O2 level.

Needless to say, it was another scary incident. Just when we think that things are beginning to improve slightly, he has another setback. I will say that it was amazing to watch them work on Nate and that Jen & I learned an important lesson on how to bag him more effectively.

Thanks for checking up on the Little Man and please keep those prayers coming!

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a frightening experience for all of you.
Nathan is a tough little guy, he knows how to fight.
Prayers continue.
I love you all,
Sue

Anonymous said...

Jen and Trey - Michelle gave me this blog address and I check regularly. I continue to be amazed at the courage of both of you, as well as Nate. I think about all of you often. You are truly a special family, and are in our prayers. Love, Judie Bauer