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Heffalumps and Woozles

Eleanor has had quite the week! She started her steroid regimen on Tuesday to help open her airways, with three days left on antibiotics. The goal was to extubate by Thursday or Friday depending on her reaction to the steroids. She quickly weaned her oxygen assistance (hooray for steroids doing their job!) but continued to have major drops in her heart rate (super common amongst the teeny babies). 

Friday morning rolled around. Nurse Kaitlin had said she would call if anything happened overnight that would prevent extubation. Sure enough, on our way up to Akron Friday morning, she called and said Eleanor had needed bagged (she dropped her heart rate so low she wasn’t coming up with the aid of ventilator oxygen and needed a manually pumped bag to do the trick), so she assumed there'd be no extubation. So, Dad dropped Mom off and headed back to Canton.

Thirty-ish minutes later, the doctors made their respiratory rounds and decided they were going to extubate anyhow, as it’s likely the tube down her throat was setting her off. Mom called Dad, Dad turned around after dropping wood off at the office and headed back in. 

At 11am, Eleanor got her breathing tube removed! And she did AMAZING with nostril prongs for a solid two hours and Mom and Dad were thrilled! And then she decided she hated said prongs, dropped her heart rate and pulse ox to unspeakable lows, and the respiratory team came in and switched her to the elephant mask. Mom took a minute to calm down after that one, but Eleanor was a trooper. 

Little Miss has since weaned her oxygen even more. She even made it to room air for a solid half hour! She continues to do well with her elephant mask (it’s a CPAP mask but she is not on CPAP support), and hopefully will continue to do well even after she is finished with her steroids (fingers crossed and prayers up). 

Oh, and the little stinker is up to 2 pounds 13.5 ounces!!! THAT'S ALMOST A WHOLE POUND GAINED!!! She also got her PICC line removed and now her arm is all back to pretty.

-Kim

Comments

  1. Aunt SherryFebruary 24, 2019 at 5:53 PM

    She is amazing 💖

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownFebruary 25, 2019 at 5:59 AM

    Go Eleanor, Go!!!!! We love you!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Grandma RoseFebruary 25, 2019 at 4:48 PM

    Baby Eleanor sweetheart hang in there. Remember you are SUTARA Strong. Hope to see you on Wednesday. Love you and praying for you

    ReplyDelete
  4. Alexa NeffFebruary 28, 2019 at 8:36 AM

    Way to go Eleanor! Thinking of you all.

    ReplyDelete

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