Thursday, October 23, 2008

The Excitement Never Ends! Haha!

This morning, at approximately 4am, Kenny got up to Ava's Ventilator alarming and found the humidifier was turned off. Hmmmm..not good. Ava has to have a constant flow of warm, humid air into her lungs or she'll get too dry and that could be bad. So I got up with him and we checked her over thoroughly, she looked fine and her oxygen levels and heartrate were fine (96 O2 and 121 hr), not to mention she was SOUND asleep. So I put a couple drops of saline water into her trach in case she had started to dry out and went back to bed. Kenny left for work around 7:30am and I laid back down, not to go to sleep, just kinda relaxing. Next thing I knew I heard Ava's vent alarming again, but this time it was accompanied by a strange sound, like someone gasping for air. So I ran into her room to find her laying sideways in her bed with her trach tube laying ON TOP of her neck! OMG OMG OMG OMG! I quickly cleaned my hands with sanitizer, untied her trach ties, put a rolled up blanket under her neck, grabbed the trach, inserted the obturator and POP! Back in her neck it went! When Kenny and I were going through Trach training at the hospital, Leslie Justice (ENT Specialist) told me that if something like this ever happened and I was by myself, adreniline would get me through! Phew! Right after I got her trach back in her neck and secured, here comes Mikki, her nurse, walking in the front door. I laughed and said, "You missed all the action--I needed you 5 minutes ago!" But Ava still wasn't done playing with us... About 30 minutes after Mikki arrived, I heard some commotion once again coming from Ava's room and Mikki said, "I need your help." What I was afraid of had happened. Ava's humidifier being off had caused her lungs to get overly dry and her trach was plugged with mucous. Mikki informs me that she is going to suciton what she could but that I needed to get a new trach ready. 'You gotta be kidding me' I thought. TWICE within 30 minutes??? She laid completely still though, I think she knew we were trying to help her. Afterward, we cleaned her up and she got the prize, a long snuggle-fest with mommy. She laid her little head on my shoulder and just cuddled with me for about 15 minutes. Mikki told me about another little giril she had cared for that used to take her trach out for fun! I couldn't imagine. But Mikki said, You just wait til she gets bigger. I'm telling you kids think it's funny to freak you out!" So there you have it. My excitement for the day. I have been officially broke in to replacing a trach tube on an infant. Haha!!!