January 24th, 2008

We received a call around 6:30am. The Wesley Ped's doctor called to say that Kinnick was in "Respiratory distress". They said they were having to suction her so much that they couldn't even keep up. They moved her to the ICU and put her on CPAP. Unbelievable....when I left her at 10:00pm last night, she was satting 100% on 1/2 lt oxygen with absolutely no sound coming from her. Within 30 minutes of me leaving I received a call saying they were holding a feed because she had a BAD de-sat (83%). She remained on the same level of oxygen and was back to 96% within minutes. So, how does this happen? First of all, 83% when someone is taking a rectal temp isn't BAD. The 6:30am de-sats (upper 70%'s) was related to yet another rectal temp and her normally scheduled breathing treatment. They were also suctioning her at the time. I'm not sure why she was being suctioned. My guess is they heard a little mucus in her throat and thought she needed suctioned. Kinnick does a good job of coughing up the mucus in her throat, now. We haven't had to suction her since we were in Detroit. Also, I'm not sure why they continued to do rectal temps when she no longer had a temp. She was temp free at 7:00pm yesterday. Kinnick, like most chronic lung babies has no lung reserve and ALWAYS de-sats when being suctioned. So, because of this, another feed was put on hold and her stomach was blown up with air due to CPAP! When I arrived first thing in the morning, she was already on a pressure of 4 and satting at 100%. She wasn't even working to breath. They finally put her back on nasal cannula and she has done fine. She was back on 1/2 lt oxygen and satting in the 90's when I left the hospital this afternoon. The bad thing is that her stomach is full of air - making it difficult to tell if we still have stomach problems. Since they deep suctioned her several times when she was in "respiratory distress", she now has secretions. Who knows what we're going to deal with, now. She went to the Ped's unit with the best lungs she's ever had and now we've taken steps backwards. Since she now has good bowel sounds and has had a bowel movement, my doctor is going to release her to go home tonight after her 7:00pm feed. The only way she'll have to stay is if something happens due to the feed or her lung condition changes.