Bye Bye Vent Tube!

His oxygen hood he needed right after they took out his ventilator tube

I don't think I have shared yet that Dane enjoys ex-tubating himself, (pulling out his tube) and did so every chance he got.  He has done it four times since he's been born, and finally the nurses started swaddling him so tight he looked like a little sausage.  On the time before his last occurrence, the doctors left something called an oral airway by his bed, so that if he pulled his tube out again, they could put this plastic hook thing in his mouth that pushes his tongue down and opens up his airway through his mouth, possibly keeping him from needing the ventilator tube. 

It became especially important when they thought he had pnuemonia two weeks ago, which can easily happen with babies on ventilators.  He got antibiotics right away and nothing worsened luckily.  But since then, the doctors and nurses wanted him off the ventilator as soon as possible. 

This brings us to  Andrew and I at his bedside at this final ex-tubation.   As soon as we got there, I could tell something was wrong, because the baby's breathing sounded very different and laborious, and I thought I could hear him cry a little.  I mentioned to Andrew that I could hear his voice, which I hadn't heard since the two cries he gave when he was born.  I asked some of the nurses to come over and see if everything was normal, and from the "uh oh" looks I could tell he had pulled his tube out yet again. The nurses then all swarmed the bed, propped him up and put in the oral airway.  Andrew stood nearby with arms tightly crossed and a worried look, before finally crossing to the other side of the room so that he wouldn't have to watch a possible repeat of what he had already witnessed.  I noticed that his oxygen was still in the high 90's, which meant he was getting enough air throughout this whole process, so I wasn't as worried as Andrew, but still was worried enough to leave to room and go pump and let the nurses do their thing without me. I didn't leave until Dawn assured me that he was tolerating the oral airway and would be alright while they decided if they needed to put his tube back in or not. 

Dane without the tube, about a week ago

Breathing through his mouth with no support, sleeping peacefully

When I returned 15 minutes later, Dane was sleeping peacefully, no tube, no oral airway, but breathing on his own through his mouth, with an oxygen hood that delivered warm humidified air with a higher oxygen concentration that what we breathe normally.  Andrew was standing over him, smiling, and telling me he watched the nurses change his diaper and put some new pajamas on him.  I couldn't believe it and called my whole family and was so excited about this new development.  We thought he would be able to breathe on his own for a few hours and then need to be re-intubated, but here it is, two weeks later, and he is breathing room air, no hood, no tube, just breathing normally only through his mouth.  It is wonderful to be able to hold him without that huge ventilator tube, and to see his beautiful face without all of the tape.  He is 6 lbs 9 oz now, and will be evaluated today to see if they can do his nasal passage surgery this next Tuesday!  It is so nice to see the light at the end of the tunnel, possibly.  Of course we have to wait and see what the ENT says!