Starting To Breathe on her own

Today was an okay day for Andrea.  She was on a speaker valve twice today, in the morning for 2 hours and late fternoon for 3.5 hours.  That is when they disconnect the big tube from her trache and put a small valve on which allows her to whisper.  It also allows them to give her some oxygen at the same time, but she really has to breathe on her own as well.  She was asking to go back on the ventilator tonight, she was so tired out, even though her oxygen sats were good.  The last 2 weeks her core muscles that make the rib cage and diaphragm expand and contract had a holiday and they lost a lot of muscle tone and strength and now they need excersizing so she can breathe again on her own.  The next step will be to plug the trache so that she will do all her own breathing again through her nose and mouth.  Her tube feeds were increased again and hopefully by tomorrow night they will be able to discontinue her TPN, the intravenous nutrition.  She also sat on the edge of her bed for 8 minutes again today but she is very weak.  We would like to see faster progress, but we need to be happy for the small steps forward that she has made.  Thanks again for all the support and prayers, the meals, monetary help etc.

 

Goodnight, Maynard