sunday 6/23/2013

Ava is improving more. The nurse today was confused and was only giving Ava 10ml at each feeding, when she had been up to 18 mls all night and was supposed to be increasing from there..so that didn't make me too happy since I didn't get there until about 1:30 and so it didn't get caught 'til then. The CPAP machine was weaned again. She is now completely off the rate and the pressure has been reduced to a PEEP of 5. She should be switched to a high flow nasal cannula tonight, though she was breathing a little fast when I left so I don't know if they had to go up on the pressure to help her out a little. When her pressure on the high flow cannula are 2 or below, she will be allowed to learn oral feeding.      I learned today that this nasty incident of the last week which caused infection and inflammation of the right lobe of her lung has caused Chronic Lung Disease. The nurse practitioner said that the lung will heal itself in about 2 years. It may increase her oxygen needs at discharge but she said that usually kids only need oxygen for a few months. It may also affect her if she catches cold/bugs in the winter, or whenever really....so our kids will be in "lock-down" during the winter months. I asked about the likelihood of a G-tube at discharge and the nurse practitioner said that that is pretty common, and a likely possibility. She said it takes just over a week to recover from that surgery.