Saturday in the PICU

I know everyone is curious how Natalie is doing, so instead of writing a long post on Facebook, I thought I would update on this Web site. It's been a while since I've written a blog post!

So, Natalie had another rough night last night. Her issue was that she no longer will accept being on the BiPAP mask. It's really uncomfortable, and the doctor described it as driving down the interstate at 80 mph and sticking your head out of the window with your mouth open. It's not comfortable.

Natalie on the BiPAP mask

After a lot of fighting and screaming last night, she finally settled down on the high-flow nasal cannula. The problem is, she's requiring a lot of oxygen to keep her sats up. My nursing friends will understand this, but for those who don't: her target sats number is 88 right now. (Sats refers to the amount of oxygen in the blood.) We all breathe 21% oxygen in from the air, and our sats are close to 100% at any given time. Natalie is struggling to stay at 88% sats while giving her anywhere from 65-85% oxygen through the cannula. Sometimes, when she coughs up some mucus, she can get her sats up to 95%, but she will slowly trend back down to 85-87% sats. The doctor, nurses, and respiratory therapists are constantly working on plans to keep her sats up.

Natalie on her high-flow cannula this morning

She's continuing to get chest PT, as well as a cough assist device every four hours to help her clear out her lungs. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't...but it always makes her mad. It then takes a long time to settle her down and get her numbers back to normal.

Chest PT

The picture above shows Natalie getting her chest PT. She has a vest strapped around her chest, and the two black hoses pump air into the vest to inflate it, followed by lots of shaking. She does this for ten minutes every four hours. She doesn't really mind this portion, but she tends to disagree with the cough assist device that follows it, which breaths air in and out of her lungs to simulate a cough. It's really uncomfortable, and coughing right now is probably painful, so it makes her mad.

Mainly, she is just happy to be off of the BiPAP. I don't blame her. The BiPAP mask, along with the extra fluids she's receiving, caused her face to puff up quite a bit.

Puffy face after being taken off of BiPAP

Being at the ICU has been such a relief in a way. There's always someone here monitoring her, including the doctor. It takes a lot of the pressure off of us. At the same time, we are always in the room with her and always helping to adjust her in the bed so that her sats will go up. Every time I get a second to sit down and respond to a a text, email, or Facebook message or post, she starts to drop her sats. Please know that I am keeping up with everything that you're sending me or posting on Facebook. It's definitely a nice distraction sometimes from staring at monitors.

Natalie's "suite"

There are so many ups and downs here. Sometimes I think she's making progress, and other times I am frustrated that she is requiring so much oxygen. It'll take time, so she'll be here for a while longer. The great thing about being in Fargo is that we have lots of family and friends here. My brother and sister-in-law, Greg and Tahnee, have opened their home to us. My sister-in-law, Brittany, has been on-hand there to babysit 24-7, along with Greg and Tahnee. Bringing Calvin and Dexter here was important to us, and we're grateful that we have family to support us while we concentrate on Natalie's health.

Last night, Calvin got to stop by and visit Natalie. For most kids, something like this would be scary, but he's pretty comfortable with the hospital seeing Natalie in this condition. He helps with her nebulizer at home and doesn't think twice about us giving her medicine. 

Calvin had his name all over the white board the second he entered the room

Natalie loves music, and especially Uncle Tim's voice, so we're happy he could stop by and serenade our little angel. Calvin loves to sing along, too.

Uncle Tim stopped by to sing to Natalie--Calvin joined the chorus. Natalie loved it!

 He's so gentle with her -- it's the sweetest thing ever.

A kiss from her little (BIG!) brother. Calvin was nervous about the tubes

Soon, Perry and the boys will go home, and I'll stay until Natalie's ready to go back home. I'd like to predict when that will be, but every time I make a prediction, I end up being wrong. So, I will predict we'll be out in a couple of weeks, and then maybe she'll be out by her birthday. She turns EIGHT years old on Wednesday!

Please continue your prayers that Natalie's lungs will start to function much better very soon. The Lord is watching over her, and so is her sister, but she needs us to lift her up in prayer during this rough patch.