Monday, February 20, 2012

PICU - day 13 - Sunday

Yesterday Emylie had a good day. Saturday night they weened her PEEP down to 9 and she did well with it. By morning she was on 35% oxygen and her oxygen saturations were 95%. They took out the arterial line in her right foot and weened her PEEP down to 8 in the morning. She was on 35% oxygen throughout the day and awake and playful. They also weened her off a couple medications and added morphine. She seems to have more strength then she did yesterday. She is jittery and loves to put on her red and blue chapstick. She also enjoyed playing with the buttons on the bed that lifted and lowered the level. The night nurse, Paul and I gave Emylie a bath, did her hair and got her bedding all changed. She did not sleep at all during the day and by 5ish was so tired and emotional but didn't fall asleep until 11:30pm (I thought the bath would help her fall asleep but it didn't)! I was falling asleep in the chair next to her bed waiting for her to fall asleep. Over all it was a good day for little Em.
She had her Grandpa and Grandma H and Dayna stop by for a visit. She cried when Dave left to go home, when her grandparents left, when Dayna left and even cried when the night nurse Paul walked out of the room. Oh, and she wanted her curtain open so she could see out into the hall and when someone would close it to try and let her sleep she would cry until we opened it.
It was so nice to see her even more alert today. She has more secretions in her trach and needs more frequent suctioning. They have said they expect to see more secretions as they turn down the PEEP. With such high PEEP levels it pushes all the secretions to the outsides of the lungs, then as they turn it down it allows the secretions to mobilize more and come out.
Emylie still cannot speak. She tries really hard to mouth what she wants to say and she will sign too if she knows the sign. She is such a tough little girl with an incredible amount of patience. I am so grateful to see her improving.

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