Monday, September 18, 2006
Three cheers for high flow nasal cannula!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip HOORAY!
Today was great. No matter how much the neonatologist mentioned heart difficulties (which he did) or g-tubes and tracheostomies (which, again, he did) or how much Tuesday arched her back (which, of course, she did) today was great.
First of all, she is off the CPAP, as you can see from the photo, and on a high flow nasal cannula. This setup is so much more comfortable for her it's like the difference between a folding chair and a custom- fit Lay-Z-Boy. Not to mention the fact that picking her up now only requires one person, the picker upper. She got a bit fussy at one point on her bed while i was there and you know what i did? I scooped her right up and sat down in a chair with her in my lap. Yep yep.
Secondly, we got permission to try a pacifier on her yesterday and so we gave it a shot that same day, with little success. Well, we gave it another shot today, just for kicks because, hey, she was crying anyway so we had little to lose and guess what! She sucked on it! Then she sat there with it in her mouth and just, you know, sat there. Every now and then she'd give it a nice little suck and when she wasn't doing that she just kinda let it be there. We were all so afraid that, because nothing nice had yet been done involving her mouth, she would reject anything that was put in there and instead she just loved it. Unfortunately, due to the shape of her mouth, she cant get a good seal with her lips, so if it had been a bottle instead she would have gotten very little milk. Still, the suckling impulse is still there and if it's possible, we're going to encourage it.
Finally, she was on room air the entire time i was there today and she saturated just fine the entire time. This is so important to me and Christine. The fact that they are blowing some extra air into her lungs is okay, but if they were doing that along with a higher O2 concentration just to get her to saturate at a healthy level, it would just be so discouraging. Instead, she's on the same air as you or i and getting everything she needs from it.
I also had a chance to visit with a baby who recently got a g-tube. Her mother said that it was fine, that the kid didn't seem to be in any pain from it, even just the day after it was done, that she felt very comfortable with it being there, especially if it meant the baby getting to go home and that they were glad about it ultimately. Very cute baby. Seeing the mom being so happy and positive about her baby made me much more comfortable with the idea of a g-tube. Now all that's left is for someone to make me more comfortable with the idea of a tracheostomy. Good luck.
Oh, and judging from the startled reaction she showed to certain sudden noises in the NICU today, i'm guessing that she's not entirely deaf.
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip hooray!
Hip hip HOORAY!
Today was great. No matter how much the neonatologist mentioned heart difficulties (which he did) or g-tubes and tracheostomies (which, again, he did) or how much Tuesday arched her back (which, of course, she did) today was great.
First of all, she is off the CPAP, as you can see from the photo, and on a high flow nasal cannula. This setup is so much more comfortable for her it's like the difference between a folding chair and a custom- fit Lay-Z-Boy. Not to mention the fact that picking her up now only requires one person, the picker upper. She got a bit fussy at one point on her bed while i was there and you know what i did? I scooped her right up and sat down in a chair with her in my lap. Yep yep.
Secondly, we got permission to try a pacifier on her yesterday and so we gave it a shot that same day, with little success. Well, we gave it another shot today, just for kicks because, hey, she was crying anyway so we had little to lose and guess what! She sucked on it! Then she sat there with it in her mouth and just, you know, sat there. Every now and then she'd give it a nice little suck and when she wasn't doing that she just kinda let it be there. We were all so afraid that, because nothing nice had yet been done involving her mouth, she would reject anything that was put in there and instead she just loved it. Unfortunately, due to the shape of her mouth, she cant get a good seal with her lips, so if it had been a bottle instead she would have gotten very little milk. Still, the suckling impulse is still there and if it's possible, we're going to encourage it.
Finally, she was on room air the entire time i was there today and she saturated just fine the entire time. This is so important to me and Christine. The fact that they are blowing some extra air into her lungs is okay, but if they were doing that along with a higher O2 concentration just to get her to saturate at a healthy level, it would just be so discouraging. Instead, she's on the same air as you or i and getting everything she needs from it.
I also had a chance to visit with a baby who recently got a g-tube. Her mother said that it was fine, that the kid didn't seem to be in any pain from it, even just the day after it was done, that she felt very comfortable with it being there, especially if it meant the baby getting to go home and that they were glad about it ultimately. Very cute baby. Seeing the mom being so happy and positive about her baby made me much more comfortable with the idea of a g-tube. Now all that's left is for someone to make me more comfortable with the idea of a tracheostomy. Good luck.
Oh, and judging from the startled reaction she showed to certain sudden noises in the NICU today, i'm guessing that she's not entirely deaf.
posted by jonathan @ 7:10 PM
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