The Ride Continues

We always said that life in the NICU was a roller coaster ride of events and emotions.  However, I'm realizing that the ride isn't over.  In fact, many parents who are reading this right now are probably thinking it's never over.  It's just part of life when you have kids. 

Things have been going really well here at home.  Zack and I are really getting the routine down and we are settling in.  Ava and Reese are making small strides every day whether it is Reese rolling over more (Yes, she is going from front to back and back to front A LOT) or Ava rolling to her side.  Ava had an eye appointment as well as a vent clinic appointment on Wednesday and everything went great.  The eye doctor is very pleased with Ava's eye development and at the vent clinic they reduced her pressure control from 37 to 35 and her pressure support from 33 to 32.  She had been off oxygen since last Friday and had no issues so oxygen is just as needed.  They also increased the volume of her feeds from 110 ml to 120 ml. 

With all that said, the roller coaster has to go down at times as well.  Yesterday I was home with the girls and a nurse and Ava had an extremely scary event.  We still are not sure what caused the episode but basically the ventilator was alarming that Ava was not getting the pressures that she needed.  We are not sure if this was due to a mucus plug in her trach, her trach tube being twisted in her airway, or another unknown cause.  To make a long story short, Ava dropped her oxygen saturation to at least the 50s (monitor wasn't getting a good read for a while), she turned blue, we removed her from the ventilator and bagged her with oxygen, changed her trach, and got her stabalized and onto the transport ventilator.  We checked the tubing on her home vent but could not find any issues so once we called the emergency vent line and the medical equipment company, we placed Ava back on that vent and it has been working fine.  Ava was extremely exhaused after the event and slept pretty well.  The neonatologist moved her pressure support back to 33 and advised us to use oxygen as Ava needed.  It was a frightening experience but we feel blessed that Ava is weathering it fine.  We would appreciate prayers that Ava fully bounces back and peace that if anything ever happens like this again, we can respond effectively. 

On a more adorable note...there are some pictures of our sassy little gals for everyone to enjoy!