My son, the guinea pig

Today, Logan became only the second patient ever at St. Joseph’s hospital to start using the Nava system.  This is a new way of using the ventilator.  The technology is only about two years old and the representative from the company was here to walk us through getting it set up…and he has been instructing all sorts of respiratory therapists and nurses on how the system works and what the different readings on the monitors mean.  He has gone through the entire speech several times.  There are about 4 or 5 respiratory therapists coming in to learn the system.  I may understand it pretty soon. 

A new NG tube was placed into Logan.  The NG tube has electrodes that recognize the electrical activity of his diaphragm.  The monitor provides information like the minimum and maximum pressure on his diaphragm. 

Right now, he is breathing on his own and the machine is set up to offer him support breaths if he needs it.  He is basically in charge of the machine right now.  Instead of getting the same amount of air on each and every breath (which is what the ventilator had been doing for him), he can direct if he wants to take a small breath or a big breath.

Tonight, the doctor is going to start him on some pretty strong steroids around midnight.  He will get a total of four doses.  The steroids are to keep his airway from collapsing when the take the tube out.  His airway has been agitated all week by having the tube in, so there is a chance of swelling when the tube comes out. 

They are going to stop his tube feeding around 4:00 a.m. so that his stomach is empty when they pull the tube out.  They will put him back on IV fluids so that he doesn’t get dehydrated.  They want his stomach to be empty when the extubate him, in case something happens that they would have to put the tube back in.  When they intubate, they want the stomach empty, so if he starts gagging, there is nothing for him to throw up.

Even after they extubate him, it will still be 6 hours of careful respiratory monitoring before I can hold him.  Hopefully, after that, they will be able to take out the NG tube as well, and I can hold him and nurse him!  I can’t wait.  It has been almost 120 hours since I have been able to hold him.