CPR, muscle relaxed, adrenalin and the flu

18/3/08 Skyla had a very restless night as she is so immune to all the drugs she is on. She started to cough today and they went to do a suction. She ended up splinting her chest. This made her have no chest movement so the vent wasn't able to ventilate her at all. They had to bag her. Her sats dropped to 55%. They had to rock her (muscle relaxant). That was the only way to stop her from splinting.

19/3/08 At 10am today Skyla did it again. She splinted her chest, but this time her sats went to 50 and her heart rate dropped right down to 50. Normal for her is 100-140. We nearly lost her, thankfully all her wonderful nurses and Drs were right there to bring her back. They muscle relaxed her right away. She had 2 hits of adrenalin another drug (not sure of name) to get her heart going. They had to bag her and do chest compressions. She was very blue. It was really close. It lasted about 1min 30sec. She goes down so quick. After all that she was fine. At 12:30 we had to go down to xray so they could put in a bigger size peg in her belly. (her feeding tube) but they are also putting in a jejunal in too. (that goes down to her intestines) That went off without a hitch. An hour or 2 later we found out that she also has para influenza type 1. (the flu) So because of this she will stay on the vent longer as she is struggling a bit as we are trying to wean her of the vent. Later on that night i went off to bed at 10:30. I stay up on level 3 in the hospital. I got a phone call at 11:20pm, she did it again. She splinted her chest. Heart rate 40, sats 60. CPR was performed on her again, adrenalin given and muscle relaxant. Another close call. Lasted 1-2min. This time they decided its best they just keep her muscle relaxed so she cant move. They put her on a rocuranium infusion. They also put in an arterial line so they can monitor her blood pressure and be able to get bloods when needed. I stayed with her all night.

20/3/08 A good day today. Lots of muck on her chest and coming out her nose all the time. Skyla is now having physio about 5 times over 24hrs. Because she is muscle relaxed, she is unable to cough so the physio is there to help get all the secretions out of her chest.

21/3/08 This morning i came down to Skyla. They said she had an ok night. They did have to bag her once as she had hardly any chest movement because of all her secretions on her chest. She had lots of suctions throughout the night and they had to get the physio in at 1am because of hardly any chest movement. Her secretions on her chest are so thick which is why it is hard to suction her. The Drs met today and they plan to leave her muscle relaxed until she is over the flu. She is finding it much harder with the flu, plus she has chronic lung disease. I seen her xray this morning of her chest. It is pretty shit. White all over, even her good lung. It may take a while to clear. By her having chronic lung her lungs will never be great. She is on so much support on the ventilator at the moment. (oxygen 50%, peep 8, Rate 35, pc above peep 28) and to get her off the vent we need (oxygen 21%, peep 5, rate 0, pc above peep 0). So by that you can see how much support she is on. Hang in there baby girl. Keep fighting. We love you so much Skyla, just keep fighting.