It's All Fun and Games Until My Baby Turns Blue

Oh man, 24 hours ago we were thrilled and confident.  Today we're exhausted and confused.

Like I said in my last post, yesterday we got to DuPont and into the NICU with no problems.  The IV went in perfectly and Isaiah got his first day of his PAM infusion starting at 6:00pm.

This morning we walked in to this handsome face:

Look how calm he looks!

Dr. Bober stopped in to chat with us in the afternoon.  He commented how he's changed!  He noticed his chest is moving differently (in a good way) to breath.  He said his calcium level is fantastic.  He talked about weening the morphine.  He mentioned how happy Isaiah looks!  He noticed the calm demeanor that we noticed this morning.  

He also mentioned when they tested his calcium, they also tested his CO2 levels....and they are elevated.  They like to see levels between 35-45 ideally, and Isaiah's came back at 62.  They guess that it's due to his continued (but improved) rapid breathing.  Since he takes such quick breaths, it's tough to push out the CO2.  

He had been on 1/8th of a liter of oxygen.  To sort of start things over when it comes to Isaiah's oxygen/CO2 exchange, they wanted to up his oxygen to 4 liters.  

So someone from respiratory came in with a new machine and hooked Isaiah up.

I had no idea what any of this meant. Now I know.  The 1/8 of a litter was a very slow flow- just a whisp of air going up his nose.  4 liters? That's a hurricane in his little nose.  It was loud and forceful and he absolutely freaked out.  He HATED it.  He refused to breathe it in.

He de-sated.  

I lose mom points for letting it happen.

To those of us that aren't in the medical field, that means his oxygen level went down.  And they went down quick.  He had been up at 99% before....and he quickly went down to the 60s.  

My poor baby turned blue.  His heart rate dropped below 100.  

And commence internal panic attacks for both Dave and I.

They tried to give him time on the 4 liters, but he just couldn't get above the 70s so they lowered the oxygen to 2 liters.  

He's since been on the 2 liters and is getting 40% oxygen (room air has about 21% oxygen).  His monitor is dinging like crazy- his oxygen level has been hovering between 86 and 92% so it's still below where they want the level to be.

I am so completely confused by all the numbers and percents and liters and acronyms and it just makes my darn head throb.  

I'm just happy he's no longer blue.

and I never ever ever want to see him look like that again.

Blah. 

So now the staff is working on figuring out the best level for his oxygen to be at so that it works with his CO2...which means we're probably not going home tomorrow after PAM is complete.  whomp whomp.

Ugh. Please send a little prayer up for Isaiah.  We really need his ribs to get stronger so he can work all of this out.