So here it is, January 15 and we are now at the stage where we are walking all over the PICU. Shelby is definitely still and by far the most favored patient in the unit. We started to walk around on Thursday and Shelby tired out quickly but did a good job. She didn't want to stop walking and threw a fit but her legs were shaking and it just wore her out. This was the first time since Dec 23 that she actually walked around and got to stretch her legs. Yesterday she did better walking and was giving everyone thumbs up and fist pumping. This morning we got up and walked around also and she is loving the new found freedom again. She actually started to dance a little. I am so glad to finally get my little girl back.
They have scheduled the left lung washing for Tuesday. This should be the last step of major treatment for her and then we should be on our way out of this joint and headed home. Still going to take a while though so I am estimating that we will be here another two weeks.
The lung washing is a very tedious procedure. They will intubate her and stick a tube into her right lung, cuff it off and that is the lung they will use to ventilate her for the procedure. Then they will go through her nose and stick a tube into her left lung and start to flush it. They will use 10 ml normal saline at a time, do chest pt to shake it up a bit and suction that fluid back out. Last time they used 1500ml of saline and was able to get 1485ml out which is very good. The doctor said that there was a lot of white mucous stuff in the bottom of the jug where they suctioned it out. The procedure takes about 4 hours and the most difficult part is to ventilate her to make sure the cuff stays in place. The last thing they want is for the ventilated lung to fill up with fluid.
They also have big plans for Shelby after the procedure. Speech has been involved with her this hospital stay and they are planning on doing a swallow functioning test after the procedure to make sure she isn't aspirating when drinking. I think her eating issues are slowly starting to correct themselves now that she can start breathing good. Also we have alot of physical therapy to do yet. I must say that I will expect her to go home on some oxygen until her little lungs are stronger.
As for now, they are trying to lower her oxygen to see how strong her lungs are before they do the procedure for Tuesday. We also got moved to a bigger room. The other room we were in was right beside the door and it has interrupted Shelby's sleep. Now we are in a bigger room with a better view and life is getting to be very good.
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