Okay, two posts in a day. I am catching up on lost time.
SF left the ICU still on ventilator mode on the Vivo 50. A couple of days later, they turned it to biPap mode, then a day later, to CPap. Yes, CPap! All in the space of three weeks! So when they suggested changing the Vivo 50 to a Vivo 40, I was flipping with joy! Being the typical Singaporean, I am always looking over at SF’s neighbours in the CICU, ‘comparing’ how well they are faring. They are usually intubated, extubated, then sometimes put on CPap using Vivo 40. It is known as ‘non-invasive ventilation’ (Yes, I have been reading all the posters along the corridors of CICU). So going on CPap, and Vivo 40, is as good as telling the world “We have arrived!”. Yeah, I have been eyeing that machine for a long long time.
The wonderful home-care team have been training us these couple of weeks on trach change, trach care, as well as the fine art of suctioning, and NG tube change. Other than the trach change, which I still feel is clumsy, I think I am pretty competent at the rest. Then this week, the cardiologist suddenly announced we could go home anytime! Home? Home! If we want, we could wait for his last pulse of steroid in a week’s time, before heading home, or we could come back for that, and DISCHARGE! The same day, they removed the oxygen supplementation, and SF is now on CPap with only room air!
So we will have to scramble for home equipment, consumables, and emergency items this couple of weeks. So briefly, these are the equipment he might need:
– Vivo 40 (we opted for this instead of Vivo 20 because it has a inbuilt battery)
– Emergency oxygen
– Suctioning machine
– Emergency resuscitation kit
As well as a whole plethora of consumables. Note I used the phrase ‘might need’, instead of ‘will need’. Just this morning, something interesting occurred. The cardiologist wanted to change his formula, thinking if SF can tolerate a little bit more long chain triglyceride in his diet now. We started discussing the milk powders and comparing the merits of the two formula. After some time, the cardiologist walked towards SF’s bed, and found the CPap has disconnected from his trach again. But this time, there was no alarm from the monitor or the CPap machine! It must have happened for some time, as the tubing was some way off his trach. The cardiologist was amazed, and said, “Well, ‘Someone’ did this, and wanted us to try having SF off the CPap. Since this is divine intervention, we will see how he fares.” All that time, SF did not desaturate at all! We realised later that ‘Someone’ had changed the setting of the alarm, so it didn’t go off!
‘Someone’! Our great ‘Someone’!
I can only see that our God is able to bring SF off the CPap totally! He is our God of miracles, the same Jesus who told the father of the demon-possessed mute child, “If it were possible? All things are possible to him who believes.” (Mark 9: 23)