15 September

Great news! Audrey is off the ventilator! She is staying in the NICU for further observation to check on her lung function. Currently, she has only the nasal cannula to give her an extra whiff of oxygen from time to time. She still has the feeding tube, but that will be removed when the doctors determine that she can swallow safely.

14 September

Audrey is still intubated, but this is only as a means to suction her lungs. She is continuing to cough up old blood and lung secretions. She is breathing only room air and isn't using the vent to pace her breathing.
They removed her Arterial Line in her right foot, so now she only has a transthoracic line in her belly and a PICC line in her left arm, plus the usual mayhem with the vent. Additionally, she is receiving 100% of her nutrition via her nasogastric tube and is off IV nutrition. Plus they have chubbed up her feed with some supplemental high calorie formula. Thanks No-Xplode!
We are hoping each day that she is extubated, but we're content knowing that the suction intubation provides will help her recover.

13 September

Audrey remains on the ventilator today. They are using it as a means to suction her on a regular basis and help her get rid of all the excess "junk" in her lungs. This way, she won't have to work laboriously to cough it up on her own which should help her recovery time. She is breathing mostly on her own and doesn't require any significant amount of oxygen (25% currently). The plan is to leave her on the vent for at least one more day, then hopefully transition directly to a nasal cannula.

12 September

Audrey remains on the ventilator after her bronchoscopy yesterday. This will allow the medical team to suction her lungs without having Audrey struggle through coughing, hopefully decreasing her time on breathing assistance. Her delivered oxygen is at 30%, an all time low, and her oxygen saturation is at 99%, an all time high. These are both very positive signs! She also looked a lot more comfortable today and was awake and looking around when Aunt Emily stopped by for a visit.

11 September

EDIT! 8 pm pacific EDIT!

The treatments overnight did not seem to do the trick, so today Audrey underwent a bronchoscopy to check out her lungs. They removed some old blood and some thick secretions, but they also uncovered some new bleeding during the removal of old blood. The bleeding was very minor but they have her intubated and on the ventilator until at least tomorrow.
We keep telling ourselves that each day is one day closer to her being healthy enough to leave the hospital. We are excited for that day, let me tell you!
In better news, Ryan's sister, Emily arrives tomorrow. It will be good to have an extra hand around the house again.

10 September

Today, Audrey moved to a mask type CPAP to alleviate pressure on her nose from the previous style of CPAP. Additionally, she began a string of steroid medications that are supposed to help her lungs work normally. Let's hope it works so she can make some real progress!

After a week of receiving IV nutrition, Audrey started receiving milk via a tube into her stomach. This is good because the only real way she can grow is by eating food. I'm hoping that food plus steroids equals good lungs!

9 September

No real changes today. Audrey requires a little more oxygen via her CPAP machine than yesterday, and her chest x-ray shows no improvement. She is still receiving a lot of attention from the respiratory therapist and undergoing treatment to help her breathe better every 4 to 5 hours.
We've been able to spend a lot of time with Audrey. Tomorrow, Ryan goes back to work, so it will be Linda only here at the hospital. Ryan will be taking some more time off when Audrey comes home from the hospital.
Any blog updates will be posted when Ryan returns from work, around 6 pm pacific, 9 pm EST.