January 7th, 2010

Deitre arrived today to check on Kierson and to her surprise, found that she had just been extubated (her breathing tube had been removed). She was put on a special breathing apparatus called CPAP using nostril jets. She was breathing fast (around 80 times/minute) but was still maintaining good oxygenation. Her blood gasses have been decent all day. Her CXR (chest xray), on the other hand, still looks terrible but at least no signs of pneumonia.



We visited her again this evening to find she was no longer on CPAP but just high flow nasal cannula. She is still breathing very fast but seems to be maintaining great oxygen saturations and her blood gas this evening looked decent. There is discussion about the possibility of re-intubating her if her respiratory rate doesn't settle down a little.



Tonight was the first time we got to hold her close. Usually by this time, they encourage skin to skin contact called "Kangaroo Care" but Kierson has been too critical to remove from her isolet. Now that she has become much more stable and extubated, they encouraged us to try it tonight. It brought tears to our eyes. She is so tiny and fragile but yet fighting to keep on breathing. Deitre couldn't help but laugh as Kierson drooled on her chest.