Vent Alarms & C-Line Improvement

Greetings all! We are still around and seeming to be constantly busy. I have worked a bit on an update about the orthopedic hand surgeon, but there are a few details we are working on. As soon as I get that finished it will be posted. I have not forgotten about it. Elias is doing well and we are happy to report our scare with the central line is resolving nicely. That was a huge relief. On Sunday we changed the dressing and saw improvement. This morning when we changed it there was even further improvement. So we are going to stick with this protocol for a few more days and attempt to revert back with hopes that we do not repeat the issue. Even if it does we know now there are some options that we can pursue.

Over the weekend we had some pretty rough nights. Elias was well overall, but he was very restless during sleep and was repositioning frequently. The positions he would place himself in would create a leak around the trach tube allow air to escape so that the ventilator was not reading his breaths properly. This would of course sound an alarm because the machine would think Elias was not breathing enough or at all. That is the downfall of the machine and an imperfect world, but the pros of having it out weight the cons like these. There were times when it would alarm, we would resolve the issue and by the time we made our way back it would trigger again. Over and Over. So there was little sleep by either of us from the constant blaring. This of course would be Katharine’s weekend to work and having no nursing coverage still made for many many hours of being awake without sleep. As you probably guessed the situation with staffing has not improved. Without going into too many details we are getting the run around if not being out right lied to by the agency. While I have yet to find the proof, I am getting closer. They can not seem to get the story straight among the 3 separate individuals I speak with. Bottom line is I am not so upset that the openings are not filled. It is the fact that they have known for 14 weeks now our staffing needs and 17 weeks for overnight coverage. Yet we have only had 2, yes 2 nurses even come out to do an interview. From my conversation with a scheduler there are 27 other cases that have similar staffing woes as ours. While we realize this is “the way it is.” I can not believe that nurses would rather not work at all than to take what is available. That is what I was told. There is a hiring freeze on nurses at most of the hospitals in the area. Many retired nurses are coming out of retirement because their husbands lost their jobs and these nurses are taking the jobs away from the newer or recent graduated one. I would think in this poor economy people would be happy with a job. I know I would. The only thing keeping us from leaving the agency is the one nurse we have is awesome. Elias really likes her and she has common sense, WOW! Anyway, enough on that. If you really want to know more email or call us and we will be happy to share more.

Finally today, Elias’ therapist ( occupational, physical, and speech) were all brought to tears of joy over the results of the ABR. They are so excited and have all secretly admitted Elias is their favorite to play with. Maybe they tell everyone that, but they all seem to have such fun with him when they come. They are so excited about his potential and it wonderful to see and hear. Elias is really trying hard to get from the prone position to sitting. He has become very aggressive at “figuring out” the Elias way to do it, compensating for his needs. Don’t be surprised to hear us report him doing it very soon. He is very very close!