Bad Weekend

Princess is not having such a good weekend. 

On Thursday I spoke with Ella's nurse and she said that Ella is a little on the irritable side.  She wasn't really sure why but it was just hard to console her.  We discussed the things that Ella likes and dislikes to maybe figure out why she was so pissy.  She loves her music and hates hates really hates wet pants!  The nurse said she would make sure her music box was going and keep her extra dry today and see if that does the trick, but it really didn't. 

On Friday morning I spoke with her nurse again and she seemed quite a bit happier, just really tired.  We kind of joked that maybe she is tired from her "pissy Thursday".  Then that night everything fell apart!  I received a call from her Dr. around 10pm.  Ella had became completely unresponsive and vomited up what appeared to be fecal matter.  They had been working hard for several hours trying to figure out what was wrong and trying to get her responsive.  They had to put her back on the vent (breathing machine) and move her to the ICU.  I was shocked and numb all at the same time.  I've been through this so many times with her I am not really sure how to feel, but it's still so incredibly painful everytime.  Just 2 days before this we were discussing the g-tube surgery she was scheduled to have today and discharge planning after that!  My heart sank with this news...............

At 1:30am the ICU Dr. called me to give me an update.  She said that Ella was stable, she was still on the vent.  They are giving her fentanyal and versed to keep her sedated.  They also started her on antibiotics to cover all their basis for possible infection. They did a CT scan of her head and abdominal cavity.  It appears that the shunt is functioning fine and her abdominal area just looked as though it was just full of gas.  They tapped her shunt to draw some CSF fluid for culture to make sure nothing is infected in her head.  Apparently when she vomited she aspirated and it went into her lungs causing her to develop pneumonia.  I expressed my concern to the Dr. about her vomiting.  Ella has never vomited in 13 months that I am aware of and for it to have fecal matter in it really concerned me!  They did a chest xray and her lungs looked terrible! 

Poor Ella..... they are doing everything they can to help her get better!  They have run tons of labs and cultures to make sure nothing is infected.  They also checked her stool for blood.  So far so good they have come up with nothing.  Therefore, there is really not an explanation to why this all happened.

Saturday and Sunday went pretty well.  She just kind of coasted along.  They started to ween her down on her vent setting Sunday and are thinking about possibly extabating today.  She is having lots of secretions come out of her mouth when they suction her.  Which is good, get the ickies out!  They have decreased her dose of fentanyal and completely DC'd the versed.  She is only getting .5mls per hour and extra PRN if she needs it.  Her chest xrays pretty much looked the same all weekend long and obviously her g-tube surgery has been put on hold.   

Lets pray for Miss Ella to have a speedy recovery.  She has been through so much and I feel terrible that she has to feel sick!