one step forward, two steps back ...the NICU dance

Since being taken off the vent on Wednesday, Charlie had been doing great. No problems to speak of. He was comfortable and happy. Unfortunately, today when we came in his was back on the vent. Evidently around 9am his heart rate dropped into the 60's and his oxygen levels were in the 50's. When the nurse (someone who has never had him before) went to check on him he was arching his back and seemed to be choking. She suctioned him, but nothing improved, so she called for the doctor who tried to give him some additional oxygen and pressure through the mask, which also did not seem to work. So, they had to re-intubate him. He has been stable since then with vent settings that are very close to where he was Wednesday morning before being extubated.

The doctor's initial thought was that it could be tracheal malaysia. This is a problem where the trachea is not hard enough and it collapses. When Dee came in this afternoon though she did not think that he had many signs pointing to that. Regardless, he will have an ENT come on Monday to see him and we will see what they think. Dee's thought is that he may have had a reflux episode that scared him into the state that he ended up in. This seems to make sense, but we just want an answer so that Charlie can continue to make progress from here. What made this more difficult to deal with was that we had not been called, so we had no idea before we walked into his nursery this afternoon and saw him - an oversight on somebody's part. So, it was a rough day for all three of us. Please keep Charlie in your prayers as we know you have.