PCICU Day 7 & 8

I thought I was going to be giving a much more positive update today and be all happy saying that Evanna got extubated, but sadly that isn't the case. 

Yesterday they spent the entire day getting fluid off her and lowering all of her sedation medication so she could be ready for extubation. It was actually kind of a boring day overall, so Thanksgiving dinner at my Aunt's was a welcome break from the hospital.

Dr. Cave (our intentivist) wasn't exactly happy with her medication levels this morning, but he still wanted to try extubation and see if she could do it. It's been a week postop, and she needs a good cough to get that upper right lobe to open up, and extubation wasn't exactly unfeasible.

At around 1pm they started the extubation process, and let me tell you - it was not fun to watch. She was wiggling and moving all around obviously not comfortable. Her eyes were open, but she wasn't making eye contact. I ended up having to leave the room for a little bit because it was hard for me to see Evanna so uncomfortable and fighting the ventilator. To try and keep her extubated they tried seeing if putting a BiPAP on her would help push the oxygen into her lungs, but she was just to tired to take nice deep breaths. Because of this, her CO2 levels rose, making her even MORE tired. So after about an hour Dr. Cave decided she had had enough and the best thing to do was to reintubate her and let her rest and try again tomorrow. 

Overall Evanna is having a tough time because of all the sedation she had been on, so she's now dealing with a little bit withdrawal and possibly hallucinating. They're trying there best to keep her comfortable and still wean her, but it's a tough balance.

Thank you for continuing to support our family.

xo The Irvine Family