Everything I read prior to having Annelise said that the NICU is a rollercoaster. I didn't really think we were taking that ride with her. She seemed to be doing so well and amazing everyone with her recovery. Then Monday when Matt & I arrived, she seemed different. The nurse and the nurse practitioner said that she was still doing fine. But I felt like something was off. Her carbon dioxide readings were up and I had kind of expected her ventilator out that day. Tuesday was not better or worse.
Today, when we went in, the nurse said that during rounds the doctors looked at her x-ray from Tuesday and there was excess fluid inside her chest. For the time being, they were going to watch it. It's on the left side, where her left lung needs to be expanding to.
We were there for a few hours when the surgical fellow came down and said that after some thought, the team decided that it was necessary to place a chest tube in to drain the fluid. Evidently everyone's body makes fluid, but usually absorbs it. He said that our bodies don't like empty spaces of air, and will make fluid to fill them up. They're not sure why there was excess fluid there (if it's infected or just normal fluid) but they need to drain it to allow the left lung to expand. This is very common among CDH babies and they considered leaving the chest tube in after her initial surgery, but decided against it because she went into the surgery in such a good place.
We went to the waiting room and in about 30 minutes, he came out and said that the chest tube was in, and the fluid was draining and looked normal. They sent some off to be tested for infection. They should know today if placing the chest tube allowed the lung to expand at all and if her breathing gets better. She still is doing very well with her ventilator settings, and they think she'll be able to come off of the ventilator soon anyway.
So for the time being, our little girl has another tube in her! :-(
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