Rollercoaster

I started a blog entry around 5:00 talking about Maggie's stability for the day, but never finished the post, and it's probably a good thing I never did because as we know all too well, things can change quickly-- and they have.

Maggie's oxygen saturation & blood oxygen levels have been very good today, however we have struggled with her CO2 and her PH (which go hand in hand). Both of these numbers began to change in a negative way this evening, so they decided to try to suction her to see if perhaps that would help the numbers.

Right before they were to check her gases again, Maggie's peripheral IV quit, which made her bed wet. The nurse changed Maggie's bedding and in doing so moved Maggie around. This appeared to make Maggie quite mad (while under sedation and paralysis). Her heart rate and blood pressure raised and during that time they also took another blood gas. This blood gas showed a PH of 7.0 (not good at all) and a CO2 of 128 (really not good). The response the respiratory therapist gave made us know this was not a good thing.

They immediately got on the phone with the doctor to determine what to do. During the conversation, they put two and two together that with the bedding change, it made Maggie very mad and this very possibly changed her blood gases for the worst (that's our fighting girl, but we are getting a bit tired of the worry she is giving us).

So, with that, they decided to sedate her even more to calm her back down and wait to see what her gases looked like. The next gas reading showed that her PH went up to 7.1 and her CO2 at 85. These numbers, though much better, are not good. Throughout all of this, they also did another x-ray to determine if maybe Maggie's lungs had torn (there's a medical term for this). They had not, but instead they found that Maggie's lungs are over-inflated. This is a good thing, as it shows that Maggie's lungs are healing. With this finding, they are now (and have been slowly) weaning down her mean pressure on the oscillator. She is currently at 28 and the RT says that normally once they are at 24, they can move back to the ventilator.

We are waiting in limbo at this current moment. They do another blood gas at 10:00. What the results show will determine the next steps. There has been talk about moving her back to the ventilator to see if this might help with her CO2. We are of course worried to death about what is going to happen. My big fear is that they will run out of options. That has been my question each time someone comes in to change a setting on the oscillator--- there is still cushion room, right? We just don't want it to come to that point.

Please pray with all of your heart that Maggie's body will be able to expel the CO2. Pray that her PH will come up to the normal 7.35 range. Pray that her oxygenation continues to remain consistent. Please, above all else, pray that Maggie's lungs will completely heal and function.