Progression of a Cold:

Monday at 9pm- oxygen

Tuesday at 5am- BiPAP

Tuesday at 7am- Ventilator

Yesterday, Cataleya's blood gas came back acidotic- she wasn't expelling her carbon dioxide and it was building up in her system. They put her on a BiPAP machine so there could be some assistance taking quality breaths. She did great on that, but was wiggling around so much when they were trying to get a good IV in that they gave her some sedation.

The sedation made her stop breathing. Out of nowhere, The Dr was yelling into the hallway- 5 other doctors came in with gowns and masks. They threw all her bedding on the floor and laid her flat on a hard board. She was completely limp and purple. I stood back against the bathroom door because the knob in my side helped keep me from crying. They intubated her and all of her breathing is done by the vent now. They never even got that damn line in.

She spiked a fever again last night and they wanted to get some bloodwork done. As soon as the nurse tied the tourniquet, all the machine alarms went off and she turned blue. They started CPR and called for "pads" to revive her. She came back without the defibrillator. I went into the hall as teams of Dr's and nurses came to the "Code" aka the dead baby in room 6. That was the 1st time I for real cried in the hospital. The receptionist brought me kleenex and asked me how she could help. All I could say was, "She only had a cold".

Cataleya had 4 more of those episodes overnight. The Doctor said that Cataleya is trying to breath over the vent (a good thing), but when she does, she's not doing so with the vent, but against it (a bad thing). If the ventilator senses too much lung pressure, it will stop delivering breaths and then she stops getting oxygen and then her heart rate drops Any little stimulation is making her clamp down. The answer is to prevent her from breathing over the vent for now. They tried a paralytic med that worked for maybe a minute, then they increased the doses of the sedative, paralytic, and pain med in the continuous drip and added a muscle block. SHE'S STILL MOVING. She's like a little hulk baby or something- nothing can keep her down.

I'm glad she's a fighter. It's good she's strong enough to be causing trouble. But I wish she'd cooperate because I miss holding her. I need to see her awake and smiling again soon. She's going to make me old before my time.