PICU

UGH.

I am so sick of getting kicked in the butt every time we get into a groove. Things start going well, Maisie's making progress, yada yada yada, and then

BOOM

Respiratory arrest.

The chest x-ray showed a lot of fluid in the lungs and inflammation of the bronchial tree, but nothing too serious. The pulmonologist put her on twice a day Advair (which is a NIGHTMARE to administer btw because she doesn't inhale on command) and albuterol by nebulizer every four hours. For a couple of days we were doing that and all was going as well as could be expected, and then all of a sudden on Sunday night she was coughing and choking. She went into respiratory arrest and was admitted to the PICU through the ER at 10:00 on Sunday night.

It was a rough and scary night. She was intubated in the ambulance (which was TERRIFYING) and didn't get extubated until around eight this morning. They tried to take it out at one in the morning but she crashed almost immediately. Finally this morning they switched her to a ventilator breathing room air but with oxygen through the nasal cannula.

She still has a lot of fluid in and around her lungs. An hour ago they put in a chest tube to drain fluid from the pleural cavity and take a biopsy. They're also biopsying the mucus she's coughing up.

I will update again as soon as I have more info.