Day 5 - PICU & 4TH FLOOR, Children's Hospital

Well, it's been 5 days since our little Elsie was taken to Children's Hospital in Omaha in critical condition. She was diagnosed with RSV with pneumonia and a strep infection last Wednesday, February 24th.

Today has been a bittersweet day. I miss Chris already; he just left for Lincoln with the girls. He will be returning to work tomorrow and traveling back to Omaha in the evening. I miss my family. Cafeteria food is getting old, etc.

We have learned so much from this whole experience. For example, did you know that almost 100% of the population has had RSV by the age of 2? Just like the common cold there are different strains of the RSV virus. Even though Elsie has RSV, she can still be reinfected with another strain of RSV. Hopefully next time it happens (because they said it probably will), it will be mild and could even present as a little cold. The decision was made yesterday to wean off the ventilator and extubate at night!! They started the process at about 6 p.m. They stopped her tube feedings so that her tummy would be empty. In case the need for re-intubation would occur, they did not want her to aspirate any milk. They decreased her sedation by half and then completely. They cut back on her ventilator settings little by little throughout the day. She kept up with her own breaths very well. Her tube was pulled at about 10:15 p.m., followed by her feeding tube and the urinary catheter. That made her look much more like Elsie and less like a very sick baby!

Next I got to hold her!!!! It was an emotional moment - comparable to the first time I held her when she was born. I think she was telling us thank you for getting rid of that nasty tube because she started smiling at Chris. I cried. It was the first time she has genuinely smiled! She was studying him very intently and then her eyes brightened followed by a smile. Believe it or not, she has been very smily to both of us since that moment. This makes me smile too.

She was put on oxygen through her nose following extubation. Since her saturation levels were so good with the oxygen, they monitored her without the oxygen. She was still doing well, so that is the last time she has had oxygen. She resumed nursing for the first time at 4:00 a.m. It was fairly successful but now has regressed since. After unsuccessful attempts to nurse and bottlefeed, they put the NG feeding tube back in her nose. They started this at a rate of 3 ounces every 3 hours. She followed by throwing it all back up. Lovely. Cut back some and will try it again. I am telling myself to be patient. It's tough!!!

Rewinding back to noon, we were moved out of intensive care and up to the 4th floor. Elsie remains on a couple monitors. After talking with the hospitalist on the 4th floor, Elsie needs to have good feedings and weight gain as she did before, as well as good respirating status. They will start oral antibiotics twice a day. Her cough still sounds terrible. She will likely continue with coughing for 2-3 weeks. This is normal for RSV infected infants. Yay...

My wagon ride leaving the PICU to the 4th floor!

Overall, we are thankful that Elsie is off the ventilator and out of ICU. Hoping for a better feeding day tomorrow though!