The infection has not yet been pinned down. We are still waiting on the cultures to come back. In the meantime, we are told that it could be bacterial, though the floor doctor believes it to be viral (but they are treating it as bacterial just in case). Unfortunately, the antibiotic they have her on causes diarrhea.
When they first admitted her into the PICU, by the time they had her settled in her room, she had thrown up 3 times that day – once in the morning before going to the ER, once just before entering the ER, and once on the way up to the PICU. Consequently, they had given her Pedialyte by way of the g-tube. However, Namine is now eating by mouth and only by mouth once again. She urped up her toast this morning, but it was yucky toast, so that’s probably not all her fault.
Jess and I are at home now. My parents are graciously watching Namine tonight so that we can get some sleep. In case you don’t follow me on Facebook or Twitter, last night was a difficult one. Not so much because Namine is having a hard time; on the contrary, aside from the occasional cough or fit of sassyness, she’s fine, and she would have slept through the night. No, the care partner on the floor decided to do a vitals check on Namine, and woke her up. When I requested that she leave Namine alone, I got back-talk and a lecture from the floor head nurse. Whatever. It was like the “let me explain the physiology of a trach” lecture all over again.
We hope Namine can come home tomorrow, but the one thing that hinges on is her O2 levels. She is currently unable to keep her O2 above 80 without being on oxygen; normally, she’d be at 88-92. She technically doesn’t destat until she goes below 75, but this is still a quite a large dip for her and an indication that something is wrong. They’ll be more comfortable sending her home when she can keep her sats up at least around 85 by herself.
Leave a Reply