Thursday, September 1, 2011

Hmmmph.

We've been working diligently on getting Selah to drink fluids, but she is strongly against the idea of anything being inserted into her mouth.  {Reminds me of the times Chrissie would clench her mouth tightly shut each time she noticed someone coming near her, as she was NOT going to let anyone mess with her breathing tube.}  I believe Selah is afraid someone's going to stick a tube down her throat, so every time we come near her with a bottle or sippy cup, she clenches her mouth tightly closed and cries while she uses her hands to push the item away from her mouth.

Now, you all know that Selah is a hefty eater.  (She weighed 25 pounds at age 10 months; today is her 11-month b-day, but I'm not sure what her weight is post-op.)  She's not one to turn away her bottle or food.  In fact, she was eating burgers and fries the night before her surgery! 

Selah will allow us to press the tip of a syringe into the edge of  her lips and squeeze formula and/or Pedialyte into her mouth.  She swallows it just fine, so it's not an issue with swallowing, it's an issue with her will to protect herself from the possibility of that horrid breathing tube experience.  Not everyone here is convinced that an 11-month old would do such a thing, but I sure feel like that's what Selah is doing.

We know her brain is working well, which is, of course, great news!  She's been clapping for herself when we cheer her on as we squirt cc's of fluid into her mouth via syringe.  She's giving her infamous crinkle-nose smiles every now and then, and she's comforted by my voice singing E-I-E-I-O and B-I-N-G-O (her two favorite songs).  She's said "Dadda", "Momma", and "Nana", and she's singing and humming and showing us that she didn't skip a beat with this surgery.  Praise to our Abba Father!

So, back to the issue of making sure Selah doesn't get dehydrated.  We've decided to go with a feeding tube (edit:  a temporary NASAL feeding tube that will be inserted through her nostril and run down into her stomach), per the suggestion of the pediatric ICU doctor.  I'm very grateful to have this doctor today (she was also the head doctor yesterday) because she's on Selah's side in terms of compassion, as well as her well-being.  Every single doctor who has found out about Selah's central line being removed is livid.  The surgeons and anesthesiologists know how hard it is to get an IV into Selah (impossible without sedation, and then it's still nearly impossible).  They also know the IV will go bad in about 24 hours, so they discussed placing another central line, but that's a much bigger deal.  So the head peds doctor suggested the feeding tube to insure Selah doesn't get dehydrated.  Everyone seemed to agree that was probably the best route right now since Selah isn't eating and drinking on her own.

Her IV antibiotics were switched to a similar oral antibiotic, and all of her other meds are now oral as well.  She's been taking those fine, which we are ecstatic about because she normally doesn't take her oral meds very well, so this is really a HUGE praise.

So, that's the plan. 

For now.

Could change at any given time.

Still in PICU where they disrupt patients (and their caregivers) at a minimum of one hour intervals, most of the time more often than that.  Like every 10-15 minutes for something or another.

Don't know when/if we might move out of here.

But I know our Father does.

And that's all I need to rely upon.

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