friday 8/23/2013

Ava is extubated- YAY! They took her off the ventilator at 4pm this afternoon. She really did well. Her lungs have a lot of mucus that she is going to need to clear by coughing. She transitioned to the high flow nasal cannula well. Her pain is under control, it seems, and so she is getting better rest and not sweating as much. After she was extubated she was crying this soft little hoarse cry. Her little throat must be soo sore, poor thing.   Shaun was with her all morning, and she had a rough morning. She threw up 3 times!  They were thinking that the breathing tube was gagging her.  I have requested that we switch her feeds from continuous back to intervals/bolus feeds so that her NG tube can be open to air between feeds. At least with the CPAP she seemed to get a lot of air in her belly making her uncomfortable, it's not as bad with the high flow. She is on 5L of flow and about 30% of oxygen. The goal is to get her back to room air. She needs lots of healing and recovery so that she can be as optimal as possible going into this next surgery (g-tube placement).