Yesterday morning was Sara's ventilator weaning test. I met with Dr. Intensivist and he planned to reduce the ventilator support for her and see how she did.
The first try, when she was laying down, didn't go so well. Actually, she was fine, but he didn't like a couple of the numbers coming back from the vent. So, we decided to wait until she was up in the cardiac chair for another try.
After getting into the chair he reduced her support from 15 to 12. (with the goal being 6 before bringing her off the ventilator onto breathing totally on her own.) For about 45 minutes she was breathing a little fast and a little shallow, but not in any discomfort and her oxygen saturations were stable. Then, she took a deep breath and fell into a nice 18-22 breaths per minute rate with very good volumes and stabilized. She didn't do it herself - her body got the message that something had changed and adjusted accordingly. After watching over her for well over an hour, I called her stable enough for me to go to work. She was fine with that, as everything was ok. Her Grandma spent the day with her, watching movies and watching over her, so we could both be sure she was ok.
Dr. Intensivist wrote an order that when she goes back to bed they increase the pressure support back to 15 so she doesn't labor while trying to rest. She showed no indication of laboring breathing, even after going back to bed at 12 for over a half hour. The order now will be lower pressure support while upright, and higher when reclined, until her tidal volumes get higher while reclined. I guess it is like interval training for the lungs.
Still, multiple times yesterday I heard from the doctor that he wasn't sure she'd ever get off the vent. Seeing as how she is doing many things they said she'd never be able to do, my money is still on Sara...
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