Faith had a quiet night & day. We know she doesn’t like laying on her left side as her “breathing” isn’t as good as when she is in other positions. We have already wrote on her leg with Sharpie so that no one accidentally takes a BP, starts and IV or draws blood from it because of the clot. Sue now suggested we put a “This End UP” on her left side, these are the things we think of as we sit watching her breathe.

THE PLAN!

Sue spoke with Dr. K. today who is coordinating all of Faith’s care now. He cleared up the mus-communication that the ICU doc had last night with ENT about the urgent need for a tracheotomy. There was none and once again those who have been with her all along had the story right. It’s scary how a game of telephone among medical professionals can have some rather unexpected consequences.

• Faith will be on IVsteroids (Decadron) and antibiotics for about a week.
• The first likely attempt to extubate would be on Thursday. We are hopeful it will be successful so she will be once again breathing on her own.
• She is heavily sedated and medically paralyzed right now so she can be ventilated without fighting it nor causing more irritation and damage to her windpipe with all the moving she does when not out cold.
• There will be a team meeting to ensure that all principles are aware of the plan so we do not continue to have these schizophrenic episodes.
• Here is some more information on what they believe the root cause of the problem is http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/vocal-cord-paralysis/DS00670 more correctly her’s is more weakness than paralysis because of the irritation in the area where the nerve bundles combine and connect to the vocal cords.
• She has also started on a new acid controller to get better control over her GERD (acid reflux) which has been causing irritation and inflammation also.
• TIME, TIME, TIME to heal everything that has been poked, prodded and irritated over the past weeks.

We remain optimistic that a non-surgical approach will be all that is necessary. It’s always better to fully explore conservative approaches before going radical. We know though in the end we are only given one airway and it needs to work all the time.