[Gospelchristianity] Update

[Harvey, Bo]

Hi all,

 

I have taken the usual update I send the PDI folks and made some
modifications, so those who receive this twice, it is going to look
familiar!!

 

Friday was a big, up and down day for the Harvey clan.

 

On Friday the docs pulled Ryleigh's breathing tube, and put her on a
CPAP that was attached to the ventilator. The CPAP was administering
breathes at a rate of 20 per minute through a cannula, the little tubes
that run in to the nose.

 

She wasn't responding very well to the CPAP with breathing assistance.
Blood gas tests showed she had too much CO2 in her blood. This meant she
was not breathing off enough CO2. Also, her oxygen requirements were
much higher than they would like.

 

The respiratory therapist (RT) and doc thought they would have to
intubate her again, but the RT wanted to try one more thing. They
actually turned off the CPAP breathing assistance, and only gave her O2
through the cannula, along with minor assistance whenever SHE initiated
a breath. They felt that the forced 20 breathes per minute might
actually be too irritating, and she was having trouble breathing against
the machine.

 

Once they turned off the forced breathes, she did a 180 degree turn. Her
O2 requirement was down 50% within 15 minutes, and the next blood gas a
couple of hours later showed her CO2 to be perfect!!

 

They kept her on the CPAP for the rest of the afternoon and the night,
but she pulled the apparatus out of her nose a few times, which caused
her O2 blood saturation to drop, heart rate to drop, etc. The RTs and
nurses were there to re-insert the cannula, but they thought it might be
too big and causing too much irritation.

 

On Saturday the physician decided to make another change, and actually
took her off the CPAP entirely. They put her on a high flow nose cannula
that just provided a set amount of oxygen. Since they made the change,
she has done very very well. Her O2 requirement is basically down to
room air level (she is getting the same amount of oxygen via the cannula
that we get whenever we take a normal breath). Her last blood gas at
10:30 AM on Saturday was as good as you can get, to the point that they
are going to stop monitoring the blood gas unless she looks in distress.

 

She has been eating (via an eating tube) like a champ, and has put on
some weight, though not a lot. They up her feed amount 1 ml per day, so
right now she gets 10 ml of milk every 3 hours. The steroids they have
given her slows down the weight gain, so we are not as concerned about
the slow progression in this area.

 

Yesterday, Ryleigh was moved from her little room in to "Gen Pop", a big
room with some of the other NICU babies. She still hasn't had a lot of
interaction with the neighbors, but it is a big step, since the staff
feels she is stable enough to handle the environment.

 

So, all in all, things are looking good. The doctors are discussing
weaning her off of the high flow nasal cannula in the next 10-14 days or
so. They also hope in the next 10 days to have all of her nutrition
coming from Mom's milk vs. the IV grub she gets right now.

 

Good things are happening, and prayers are being answered every minute.
Thanks to all of you who have kept us in your prayers and sent positive
thoughts. I can only attribute Ryleigh's progress to the grace granted
from your actions.

 

We are on our way!!

 

Bo

 

___________________________________

 

Mathew 'Bo' Harvey

PDI

3407 S. 31st St.

Temple, Texas  76502

Office: 254.771.7100 

Cell:     254.541.0863

www.profdata.com

 

Do Business Electronically with PDI/Enterprise! 

 

 

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