Small steps

Hello all,

As we expected, progress is slow in the ICU lung transplant world. Today was one of those 1 step forward, 2 steps back days. Alley was on minimal breathing support through her breathing tube so they decided to try taking it out and put her on some nasal prongs with a high pressure to make it easier for her to breath with oxygen. This was a failure. She lasted 2 hours, and was increasingly getting tired and struggling to breath. Her body was getting exhausted with this and her heart rate climbed to 170-190 and she needed more oxygen. They gave her a few meds to try to decrease her heart rate and than put her breathing tube back in.

This showed that her body was not ready to have the breathing tube out, which can sometimes happens. They put her back asleep and were leaving her for the night before they will make any changes.

They will not try to turn down the ventilator for a few days and my guess is that she will be very sleepy and exhausted tomorrow.

Although she has progressed well in the days since her transplant, any amount of movement ( such as sitting up for a few minutes or trying to communicate with us) makes her very tired and she has to sleep for a few hours to recover.

Thank you for all your words, thoughts and prayers over this last week.