Day 15: Look Ma, No Tube!

Liviana was extubated around 10:00am this morning. All went off without a hitch. They gave her a nasal cannula with medical air at a low rate. She will likely (hopefully) be taken off of it tomorrow or Sunday.

Right after she was extubated and put on the nasal cannula and for some time afterwards she was hitting 99 and 100 on her oxygen saturations on a much reduced level (1 liter vs. 2 liters). While Dr. K. did not doubt our little "rockstar" (as the nurses call her) he thought that the line they had her air running into may not have been calibrated correctly and asked them to humor him and try one of the other lines. When they switched it her sats went to a more normal and expected level in the low/mid 90's. She is still a "rockstar" though.

I just can't believe that it was just 2 weeks ago that she joined us in this world. She is doing so well and I tell her all the time how proud I am of her. They are continuing to up her feeds and hopefully by Sunday or so we can begin introducing nursing to her. She has been off morphine since last night at 8pm and has not had any pain medication at all since then.

My mom (Dooda) went back to Wichita this afternoon. The kids are going to miss her so much. We have a babysitter to help out so I can be at the hospital so hopefully all will run smoothly.

Thank you again for your continued thoughts and prayers. Please keep little baby Kelly in your thoughts. She is in the room next to Liviana and went from doing great, nursing and getting ready to go home to being placed on a vent and bagged today. She is fighting a nasty recurring infection that resurfaced a few days ago and her little body seems to be struggling quite a bit with it. Her poor mother is up here all the time and they had to make her leave to go eat. She does not speak English and I'm sure that further increases her fear with the situation. Please keep them in your thoughts.