(Brandon writing) Today was a very interesting day. We woke up this morning intending to go to church and then visit Noah later. After all, he had been very stable for four days and seemed to be in a very good place. Well, we decided to go visit him before church and check up on him. When we got there, the nurse told us that his oxygenation levels had been lower and that his gas readings had not been as good as they had been. This information made us a bit apprehensive. A little bit later they did take Noah off the oscillating ventilator and put him on a conventional ventilator. (The main difference is that the conventional one causes the lungs to breathe in a more normal way.) He seemed to be fine with the change, but around 9:30 or so his oxygenation levels started to go way down. This change in condition kept us at the hospital for the morning and afternoon. Later on, his gas levels were much worse than they had been. Furthermore, the upper lobes of Noah's lungs had collapsed a bit, and the nurses were getting a lot of secretions out of his lungs. Needless to say, our morning was very tense. We were beginning to wonder if all the progress that Noah had was for nothing. The nurses turned up some settings on his ventilator, which he seemed to like. Later on in the afternoon, his oxygenation levels improved and his gas levels returned to normal. We left around 3 PM as we were exhausted from the morning's stress. I have since placed two calls into the NICU, and Noah is behaving himself so far. His oxygenation levels are good, and his gas levels, while not ideal, are much improved from this morning.
Some positives:
1. While they did have to turn up his oxygen levels on the ventilator earlier today, when I last talked to the nurse, she said that they had turned his oxygen down to 65%. Remember that several days ago he was on almost 100% oxygen.
2. Although he did have some bumps today, his condition appears to have stabilized with better oxygenation levels and gas readings.
3. The nurse said that his lungs sound much better than this morning, which means that his lungs have probably expanded back to where they should be. They'll probably x-ray him tomorrow just for confirmation.
4. Noah is on the conventional ventilator. This change has to happen for him to be able to get off the ventilator entirely. While the transition from one to another was a bit rocky, he seems to be adjusting as of right now.
How you can pray:
1. Please pray that Noah's and our trust will be in the Lord. Jesus taught us that anxiety cannot add a cubit to our height or an hour to our life. Therefore, we do not want to be anxious or doubting of God's love for us or Noah.
2. Please pray that Noah's condition will stay stable and/or improve. Specifically pray that Noah's oxygenation levels and gas readings would stay stable. We would also ask you to pray that his lungs will continue to heal.
3. Please pray that Noah's body would react well to decreased settings on the ventilator.
4. Please pray that Noah could soon start to be nourished by his mother's milk. I'm not sure why I'm so anxious for him to be able to get real food, but I do know that it's much better for him than the stuff in the IV!
5. Please pray that God would give the doctors and nurses wisdom. There's a lot of trial and error here.
6. Please pray that the swelling in Noah's body would go down. He's very puffy and swollen from not being able to move very much. He is peeing enough, but we'd like to see him back to normal soon.
Thanks to all who have been faithful to pray for Noah. Please pray for the other babies in the NICU. God knows who they are. There's a lot of sadness and suffering in that unit.
Please let us know if we can pray for you!
Love from Pittsburgh,
Brandon, Lauren, and Noah Pickett
No comments:
Post a Comment