The Evolution of Peep

July 29 9:30 pm

Today, once again, I found myself having an altered perception that directly related to a word that I had grown up with and loved. Then I realized that that fun little work had already been altered once in my lifetime and now I was on its third defintion. Today I analyzed my evolution with the fun little word Peep. Growing up there really was only thing that peep meant. We all grew up with it....or should I say them. They were little....they were yellow.....and they were absolutely delicious. If there were peeps in the stores (or better yet in your hot little possession) then you could be assured it was spring and that Easter was near. You see they weren't just delicious little sugar coated marshmallow treats. ( And by the way, was anybody else freaked out by the one little tiny brown spot that was supposed to be the eye?? I mean come on, there weren't any other disginguishing marks on it. It was simply a silouette....a scrumptous outline of a little chick that happened to be covered in glorious yellow sugar...as if there wasn't enough sugar already....but then they added that little brown dot that just always seemed to be staring right at you.....pleading with you not to eat it......I have to say....more than once I plucked that little sucker off of there and threw it down before I gobbled up that helpless litte critter that melted in my mouth......come on somebody out there has to be with me on this.......okay maybe I'm the only freak...) We all loved (and by loved I mean still secretly devour them whenever we can) them They meant more than just a treat, they meant it was spring and better yet it was time for Easter Break ( which I now call Spring Break, to be politically correct as a professional educator). As I grew into my later teens, whenever somebody mentioned peeps I immediately thought of my friend Gary. See, Gary will not even think twice about downing an entire box of twelve of these glorious treats in a single sitting. ( I always watch anxiously to see if he suddenly fall into a diabetic coma). He even bought a hat with a Peep on it and would wear it at softball. Peeps are an American instituion. Then a few years ago my frame of reference changed and the term peep took on a new meaning (and by new I mean an alternate......the little yellow chick treat could never be replaced.) See I am afflicted with an occupational hazzard by being a student activities director. I have to keep up with most mainstream pop culture, music and terminology that influences the teenage population. I even become that lame old guy and use some of it once in a while......never very successfully, but it does creep into my vocabulary. Not that I need to use it, but I do need to have a basic understanding of it. That's where the next evolution of peep comes in. You see in slang or hip hop "peep" is short for people. So when you say peep, you are referring to your people or your friends. "Where my peeps at" would mean, where are my friends. So there's your pop culture lesson for the day.....however, I must warn you that this is already "ol' school". This phrase has already had its run and has pretty much been put out to pasture......unless of course you hang around me as I am guilty of its use once in a while. So there it was the only two possible ways this cute little word would ever enter my world.....until of course now. You see this long rambling, down memory and hip hop lane was to introduce the latest exciting news (okay that was a long introduction even for me....sorry June, I'll get to the good stuff now!!). Peep is actually a technical term in the NICU. It stands for Positive End Expiratory Pressure. In a nutshell it is the amount of pressure with which the oxygen is being constantly forced into the nose through the CPAP device. The amount of pressure is measured in numbers from 0 on up. (It's actually the number of centimeters of water.....blah blah blah....you don't really want to know that much). The bottom line is that, when put on CPAP both boys started at number 6. Here is where the boys have deviated. First Parker: he had a rough night last night. He struggled all night long with his tubes. They kept coming out, he wasn't gettting enough O2. They kept having to increase the amount of oxygen to give him, it was rough. The bottom line is that his peep went up to 7+ today. The good news for Parker is that his blood gasses are coming back okay so they aren't having to re intibate him yet. We are really hoping he settles into it and can get his peep back down. If he does get it back down.....back down to four or less......then he can become like Tyler who.........Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da Da.......got off of CPAP today and is just on nasal cannula!!!!!! That's right, Tyler had done so well that they weened his peep all the way down to four and then took him off of CPAP!!!! This is way ahead of what we had hoped for. Now he just has the little plastic tube with the two little prongs (the cannula) that delivers oxygen to him with just a little bit of pressure or peep. We were blown away today when we came in to find Tyler off of CPAP. He not only was off CPAP, but he has responded so well that they took him off of the steroids early as well. Parker is progressing, just not as quickly as Ty. Park will finish out the steroids and hopefully respond better to the CPAP, get his peep down and be transfered to nasal cannula as well. We'll see.....as long as they don't have to re-intubate him then he is doing well. All in all a pretty doggone good day in the UCD NICU!!!!