Morning Update – Sept. 28

I slept over in PICU last night. This is not a place designed for sleep. I didn’t do much of it, but I think I did better than Susan did the previous night for one important reason, Megan slept better.

They got her on Ativan for anxiety and melatonin to help her get on a night time sleep routine. This combined to help her sleep very well till about 4 am and more intermittently after. Regardless she mostly slept.

She did have a bad dream at one point. I was awoken by her vent alarming and when I got there it was because she was breathing so fast. I asked if she had a bad dream and she did a frown and nodded her head. So I was able to sooth and reassure her and she went right back to sleep.

In other good news, they had her vent set to O2 and pressure support only. No forced breathing. She breathed on her own all night and at rounds the doctor was very happy about that.

They are reducing her O2 today (currently at 30% and room air is 21-22%) as she tolerates it. If she does well by the end of the day they want her on room air. Then they plan on switching her off vent to a CPAP machine. I am hopeful she can be on her own eventually, but this is a huge step to getting her out of PICU.

Her heart is also doing great. She has had no arrhythmias after coming off her IV based meds.

The last big news is they heard Meg is trying to talk and are going to trial her on a trach connection that should allow her to speak. There may be damage to her vocal cords, but I know she is frustrated trying, so if she can, even for just a few minutes at a time to start, this will mean so much to her.

Prayer needs:

• getting off the vent
• being able to speak
• peace
• general healing
• more healing of her lungs
• continued heart healing
• kidneys