In the last 24 hours, Lily has been a lot more comfortable. Her heart rate and respiratory rate are down, almost normal for her during an illness, 90s – 120s for heart rate and 50s-70s for respiratory rate. We had weaned her O2 down as far as 40% and 8L; however, during the night we went up as high as 80% during a spell. She’s back down to 55% O2 now.
She moved up from PICU to the ICU step-down unit, and she was able to eat for the first time in a couple of days. Poor little sweetie was so hungry. And, doggone it, if she wants pizza for breakfast, then I guess pizza it is (she’s eating fruit and drinking lots of fluids too). (I do miss my own healthy cooking, but there’s something to be said for room service too!)
As I mentioned, Lily had a spell during the night. Her lower lobes had diminished breath sounds throughout. In fact, for a time, we couldn’t hear any breath sounds at all, just a few crackles here and there. The RT and nurse gave Lily an epi neb (epi is adrenaline,…the way it works is that it holds the trachea rigid, so people can be more effective coughing out the mucus). At that point, Lily really wasn’t moving any air in her lower lobes, so we gave her an extra, slightly more aggressive, vest treatment.
Have I mentioned that Lily really doesn’t like her vest treatments? She doesn’t mind so much at first, but by the time they reach the last (most aggressive) setting, she’s ready to be done and says her tummy hurts (from the pummeling). If I sit behind her during the treatment, she seems to tolerate it somewhat better.
So, following the vest, her breath sounds were still diminished, but at least Lily was moving air a little bit more.
Her labs look good.
Her chest x-ray shows a little more cloudiness on the left today. Lily is definitely not out of the woods yet. We just have to keep being aggressive, and hope and pray she doesn’t get any worse.
Yesterday was a good day. Today, I’m tired. I might be coming down with something too. I’m drinking tons of tea, pushing fluids, and using my neti pot, but this lack of sleep isn’t going to keep my immune system up for long.
Mark and the other girls (especially Mark) are feeling pretty rough at home. Elise is managing okay, but Leah feels achy and uncomfortable. Mark is completely miserable.
Oh, and for as sick as Lily has been, she’s also been using her potty very well! Aside from a couple of accidents overnight (which I expected due to the fact that she’s getting IV fluids all night), she’s been completely dry!
2 comments:
Still thinking of you guys & keeping you all in our prayers! My kids speak of Lily as if they know her. They told their dad about her at supper time.
Thanks for the update.
Thanks for the update, Robin. I am sorry it is so back and forth. I am also sorry that everyone else seems to be sick too. I hope and pray you are able to rest.
Constant prayers.
Thanks for the updates here and on FB. It really helps to hear from you how Lily is doing, even when she is not doing as well as we would like.
(((Hugs)))
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