Moving

Tonight when Greg and I were at the hospital after shift change, the doctor decided to move Caden from the private room he was in in the PICU side of the unit. The way they tell it, they didn't have the opportunity to put Caden in one of the CVICU beds prior to this evening, but now there was a space available. This would make it easier for them to keep an eye on Caden and be better all the way around. Greg and I think that PICU just wanted their bed back. We're a little disappointed because the private room was very nice. But we understand the need for the move. Caden is now in the main room with the CVICU nurses station and there are two other babies in the room. I think it will definitely be easier on the nurse as she won't have to call someone to cover for her while she gets something or have other nurses bring her supplies she needs. And, hopefully it will provide a higher level of care for Caden as he is really the most important part of the situation.

It was quite the endeavor to watch them get him ready to move. It ended up taking nine people to get all the equipment unplugged and ready to go and then set up again in the new location. They had taken him off the ventilator and were hand-bagging him during transit. This was working fine except at one point as they were trying to get everything hooked back up again in the new spot, they lost air in the bag and couldn't push any air into him. The doctor was the one bagging and she got pretty excited when there was no air and that made me very nervous. When you see the doctors get riled up like that, you know it could potentially be very serious. Thankfully they got the air hooked up and everything was fine.

Caden was not impressed with the move. He has been showing himself to be very opposed to change, especially big changes. So, when they took his blood-gas, his CO2 levels were really high. Also, his respiratory volumes were lower than they like to see. The respiratory therapist and the nurse worked together to suction him and clear out more mucus plugs from his airway and that made a big difference in his volumes. Greg was staying at the hospital for awhile to make sure Caden settled in okay and his numbers and respirations looked good.

One thing the attending said tonight is that she thinks it is possible all the mucus is the result of some kind of cold or virus. If this is the case, it would have been something he was exposed to while in the NICU. But there is no way to know for sure. It was interesting that she suggested this because it was something Greg was wondering about. That is the latest for now. We'll update more as things change.