A nighttime struggle

It's just after midnight and I feel like I'm having déjà vu. Alex got moved to a different room in the PICU tonight so we are settling in again which reminded me of getting transferred here two weeks ago from the floor. Her carbon dioxide levels are climbing again just like last time and she's is on BiPAP again which was the case right before she got intubated.  It's a Tuesday, same as when she was admitted and so a lot of the same staff are working and we have the same nurse and respiratory therapist as we had the night she was transferred to ICU.  This definitely makes for a night of little sleep and worry of reintubation.

The docs think she is obstructing when she sleeps and although the secretions are thinning out, she still requires a ton of suctioning which could also be contributing to her struggle to breathe at night.   I'm not sure what this means for the morning and days to come but we should get more information during rounds in the morning.  Hopefully she just needs a little bit of extra support while sleeping and this doesn't necessarily mean we are taking a big step back or her condition is getting worse. She's been in good spirits and slowly weaning down on her oxygen requirement with reasonable carbon dioxide levels until the spike this evening. We'll keep you posted as we learn more.