Sorry for the lack of posts-- for the first time in a while, I just didn't have much to report and work took precedence-- the Federal fiscal year ends on 9/30 and things get a little hectic in my office. It was actually nice to be distracted.
In any case, Madeleine has really made a dramatic turn around in the past week. We're still being very cautious as we know that she can turn on a dime but she's done great the past few days. Here are her current settings:
- Dopamine (blood pressure): Was completely weaned yesterday.
- Vecuronium (VEC- the paralytic drug): Was completely weaned two days ago.
- Oxygen: She's down to 50%.
- Nitric Oxide: She's down to 10 mcgs.
- She's still on low doses of Fentanyl and Versed (two sedatives) to ensure she remains calm while on the vent but she's awake portions of the day and calm.
That's pretty much it. Over the next few days, we hope to continue weaning the nitric oxide and we've been warned that the last 5 mcgs can be excruciatingly slow and difficults-- big surprise, eh? Once the nitric is weaned, they'll have to tweak the oxygen a bit further down as well as some of her other vent settings and then we'll discuss extubation. (All of this presupposes that there are no setbacks.) We still haven't talked timeframes with the doctors but Kirsten and I think its possible that she could be extubated early next week. We're not getting our hopes up and honestly don't care how long it takes, but we can't help but start thinking that things are going well.
That's all for now. We'll keep you posted as things continue to progress.
Brent and Kirsten
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2 comments:
Thank you for the update. So glad to hear that things are heading in the right direction! We hope the next few days are just as boring!
Kellie
Thanks for the positive report! We are so happy that Madeleine has had a good week, and pray for many more to come.
Jill
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