Today was a tougher day. The doctors are trying to ween her off of the meds so they can extubate her, however in doing so she became a bit anxious and was fighting the ventilator. What she does is bites the tube so she can’t get air from it. The nurses had to use a bag of oxygen on her as she started to actually turn colors, but had it all under control.
The doctor thinks they reduced the sedation meds a bit too much and she became too aware of her surroundings and probably panicked a bit. When I got there I saw the tail end of another episode where she was fighting the machine, however this time the doctors gave her some Ativan to quickly calm her down and that seemed to work. They then increased the ventilator and gave her a bit of propofol so she could have a good nights rest, which she did!
This morning an ophthalmologist will be seeing her to make sure her eyes are ok since the left one is a bit dried out, however it does seem to be getting better. They will be able to determine if there is any type of damage to the overall eye from this long stay in PICU.
The plan is to try and ween her off of the ventilator again today, what they do is turn it to a CPAP setting that basically makes Raena breathe on her own without help from the machine so they can determine whether or not they can remove the tube. This would also mean she can’t have any more hard drugs to help her, but they would continue Fentanyl and Versed for pain relief and rest. They could probably give her Ativan too, but the object is the not fill her up with lots of drugs. In fact, to help with the withdrawals from 2 weeks of these drugs going through her body, they are giving her a small dose of Methadone 3 times a day to help her body ease off the drugs with minimal withdrawal effects.
Hopefully today is more promising for her in that they can finally extubate her. This seems to be the majority of her discomfort, not to mention lying in the hospital bed for days on end without being able to move. Raena does seem to like getting leg massages and moving her arms and legs in different positions for temporary relief.
I am thinking positive thoughts that when I arrive back at the hospital, she will be extubated and feeling better, keeping fingers crossed! Talk to you all soon…
Praying for a good day for Raena and the rest of your family.
Fingers are crossed. Raena is so strong. Our continued thoughts and prayers are with her.
I’m glad she’s a strong girl…stronger than we all thought!
I look forward to reading this every day. Thank you.
_yumi