Spoke Too Soon

Deb and I were having a leisurely Sunday morning, and we thought we would call and check on Grace before we settled down for a hearty breakfast. It never fails that when we call some crisis is going on. Grace was having another episode of apnea and was being bagged. We dropped our coffee, slapped on a ball cap and high tailed it to the hospital. By the time we got there she was fine but had been placed on CPAP to give her a little extra ventilatory support.

We are frustrated since the whole point of the trach was to relieve presumed obstructive apnea. Clearly that is better, but it seems she is still having central apnea, meaning that her brain doesn't remind her to breath sometimes. A CT scan of the brain was obtained today to see if she was having an increase in hydrocephalus that might be an issue. Fortunately neurosurgery thought that there had been no significant changes. So we are not really sure why she is still having apnea episodes. We can't help but feel we are backtracking again. Grace is back on ventilatory support, she is just not herself, lethargic and disinterested in her surroundings. Tomorrow we will be allowed to hold her again, and maybe we can get the old Grace back.