Extubation

Brigid is back to having a bit of a hard time with her breathing. When she is awake and alert, they find that she works hard at fighting against the tube. She is a strong girl, but in this case, strong is a bad thing. She often displaces the tube, and it tends to cause her to have a vagal response or to have trouble oxygenating or venting off her CO2.

Again.

She has lost weight over the past few days, I think. They don't weigh her daily in the PICU and that's where she's been since her surgery, but today she looked skinnier to me. They mentioned that she may be using her calories in struggling with her breathing, either during the CPAP trials or if she's just not ventilating well. So now, after several different CPAP trials (some successful, some not), they think the best thing would be to try removing the tube altogether and seeing how she does without that being a factor.

This is very scary to me, but I'm curious about it as well. As much as the positive pressure (PEEP) from the tube has been helping to keep her malacia open, is the tube itself causing blockages? Has it now become more of a hindrance than a help? And if so, can they give her the PEEP she may need to overcome the floppiness in her airway through only the nasal cannula?

These questions and more will be answered tomorrow morning at around 11 a.m. Please say some prayers that it would go well and she'd be able to be off the ventilator completely.

Plus, I'm kind of excited to see her upper lip.