Olivia has officially been weaned off her morphine! She’s so much more awake now, and has begun mastering how to suck her fingers. She’s looking around, and is so curious about her environment.
She’s been getting PT and OT to help her stretch out her arms and legs, helping her to develop as a baby
This week, her supplementary oxygen needs have been much lower – down to 28-30%! We all breathe air that is at 21% oxygen, so it’s amazing to see her lungs improving ever so slightly.
“My Sibling has Paws”
Because of the lower oxygen needs, the team has weaned her PEEP (positive end-expiratory pressure). This particular setting essentially dictates how much air pressure has to constantly be pushed into her lungs just to keep them inflated. She’s been at a 12 for most of her life, but the team was able to go down to 11 this week. They plan to wean her to 10 today. If she can handle that, the team wants to wean her to 9 next week and will perform a G-J tube surgery.
The G-J surgery will place a tube through her stomach so she can be fed directly to her intestines, bypassing her stomach altogether. She would no longer need the NG or NJ tube that is currently running through her nose down to her intestines. This surgery will have a quick recovery.
Ideally, all of this can happen before Olivia is moved to Franciscan Children’s rehab hospital in Brighton. Otherwise, she will need to be transferred back to Children’s hospital for the surgery.
We aren’t sure when the move to Franciscan’s is scheduled for – it depends on if they have open beds, and if there are other patients waiting to go to Franciscan’s ahead of Olivia.
Hi Opa!
In other news…
Max has gone back to work (remotely), and is working on balancing Olivia time with work time
Becky and Max plan to move to Brighton this week. They rented an apartment for the next few months to be closer to Olivia. The place is within walking distance of Franciscan Children’s, where Olivia will be headed for recovery at some point in the future.
Way to go Olivia!
Happy birthday Max!
Happy, happy belated birthday Max. You are a wonderful dad to Olivia and a magnificent husband ❤ to our beloved Becky.
Thank you so much for the post,Dan.
Great progress!