Emily had an interesting day. The nasal cannula has been drying out her little nasal passages the past day or so. When the nurses try to suction her, she bleeds and then the blood clots in her nose, blocking her airway and creating a vicious circle. As a solution, they put her in a plastic tent this morning which they can keep humidified. While she was desatting earlier today, one of the nurses turned up the oxygen to her little tent because increasing oxygen through the cannula wasn’t helping (she was at 75%). Emily started breathing through her mouth and was doing fine. When one of the nurses checked in on her, she noticed that our little girl had pulled off her cannula, but her O2 saturations were still above 90%! Even funnier, later in the day, her nurse commented that we had put her cannula back in. Mom and I were surprised because we hadn’t, and no one else had come over to check on her during that time, so Emily had somehow managed to put her cannula back in correctly all by herself! By this evening, they had taken off the cannula completely to give her a break and Emily was getting oxygen from the air in her little plastic tent, which was ~45%. But, she was doing all of the breathing on her own! Hopefully this little hiatus from the cannula will last only a few days until her nasal passages heal and then when she gets back on the cannula the doctors will start weaning her flow.
Tont