A New Day, A New Vent & New Hope

July 11 10pm

Well if there is one thing that I've learned in my time here on this planet, it is that change is inevitable. Being a creature of habit, I often find myself opposed to the whole notion of change. ( I don't think I've ever really used the term "notion" until just now.......I'm thinking it was a bit awkward, even though it got the point across......I'm thinking it may have been my last time unless of course I move to the deep south someday). I like to get into a groove and stay there.....get comfortable then reap the rewards of my labors........that's what I like, but most of my friends would scoff at that description of me, but I think that is my true nature (there's another goofy word.....scoff......not sure what in tarnation's gotten into me tonight.....okay now I'm just messin' ya). As much as I like continuity and predictability, I must say I was very excited about the possibility of change today. First, the minor changes for Tyler. As we arrived and approached Tyler's incubator, it was the result rather than the subtle changes that was immediately apparant. For one of the first times ever Tyler laid (sorry Kristen, I think this may be the wrong verb tense of lie......oh well....) almost completely still and seemed almost completely devoid of agitaion, which is his normal state of being. He actually looked peaceful. It was a welcome sight, although I must say it was a bit unnerving at first. The day nurse, in an attempt to simply calm him and dismiss his constant figiting, made two relatively benign changes. First, was the return of the wax in his ear. A little wax plug in his ear seemed to help dull all of the noise that can often times invade the NICU. This was a trick the night nurse utilized with success in the past. I had told the day nurse about it late yesterday so she opted to employ it today with some success. The other new change was not only serving in an extremely effective capacity, but also was just so damn cute that I had to get a picture of it that I'll post as well. She gave him a teeny tiny little bitty pacifier (or passy as Heather called it). She said he couldn't have been happier to have that little piece of heaven to occupy his time. He tore into it like a dog on a bone. His little lips locked on (around the feeding tube and breathing tube of course.......come on this in life in the NICU!!!) to that little passy and he just strated sucking away. Who knows if either of these whimsical new changes really made any difference, but who cares.......Tyler looked at peace and I was all for it!!!!!

The bigger change of the day came with Parker. We're hoping that the third time is the charm, cuz for the third time in about a week they took Parker off his occilator and put him back on the conventional vent. Just after the change they took a blood gas and discovered some very displeasing CO2 levels. They waited a couple of hours, took another gas and found them to still be high, but having improved from the first set. While we were there he seemed to be doing pretty well and relatively stable. They weren't sure if the switch was really helping or hurting and had scheduled another blood gas for this evening. Well just before writing this we called to get an update on how he is doing. We found out that they had made yet another change. Not with his vent this time, but rather with his breathing tube. They thought that maybe it was leaking or simply wasn't big enough and wanted to extabate (take the tube out) him and then intibate (put a tube in) him with another slightly larger tube. Needless to say I am really glad that I was not one to bear witness to that little circus of events!! Well, the news is.....pretty much the same......his CO2 gasses are still high....about 75% when they need to be in the 60's at most. They are going to take yet another blood gas tonight and make some vent setting changes tonight in hopes that he will settle into the new vent and do better. This is the double edged sword. I'm definately in favor of trying something new as watching him continually desatting then recovering is killing me......but the new vent means they are taking A LOT of blood gasses now, which include the painful drawing of blood from his heel stick........suck it up Thompson......the pain of the blood drawing is for a good cause and could really help him out in the long run!!!!!.......or it could just torture him for no gain.........all things considered I still strongly encourage the course that they are currently on.......I'll just have to bring him in some ice cream tomorrow for being such a brave little soldier........okay okay I know you're on to me.......he's too small for the ice cream so we all know it's really for me!!!!!! They were going to flip Tyler to the new vent today, but other emergencies within the NICU drew the medical team's attention elsewhere........so I'm taking that as a good sign, that they felt Tyler was doing well enough not to be a priority above other preemies emergencies........I feel for them and their parents and will gladly defer his vent change until tomorrow. So needless to say I am very curious to see how Parker gets through the night and how well Tyler tollerates his new vent tomorrow. I'll keep y'all posted ( I gotta admit.....I do acually use y'all quite often in my life!!!