Can I get a lung?

  Tuesday night we found out that Lucy had a left collapsed lung and and her right lung was partially collapsed.  To Mike and I this seemed like a really big deal, but most of the nurses talk about it like this is just a normal part of recovery.  Again, they are not making light of it, they just see it a lot.  When I asked about the lung collapse, one of the nurses said a lot of 'our' babies have this issue.  I just love that they say 'our' because you know they just care so much about the kids they treat.  Anyway, the chest therapy they started was to help open up the lungs, but it didn't seem to be working.  The next step was to have a ENT doctor come and review x-trays.  His suggestion was to try a flexible bronchoscopy.  This is where they put a camera and suction down Lucy's breathing tube to view the lungs.  They then try to suction the secretions.  This is a bedside procedure and the main risk is that it doesn't open up the lung.  Unfortunately it didn't work.  So the next step was a rigid bronchoscopy.   A rigid bronchoscopy is done in a hospital operating room using general anesthesia.  This procedure allows the doctor to look inside your lungs' airways, called the bronchi and bronchiles.  The airways carry air from the trachea, or windpipe, to the lungs.  During the procedure, the doctor inserts a thin, flexible tube called a bronchoscope into Lucy's breathing tube and is passed through the tube to her airways.  The bronchoscope has a light and small camera that allows the doctor to see Lucy's windpipe and airways, take pictures and suction any secretions.  When we went to visit Lucy this evening, we found that Lucy did great and that they were able to remove a lot of the secretions.  Before the procedure her ventilator was set a 100% oxygen supply and after the procedure the setting were done to 30%.  We consider this a huge success.  The cardiologist said they will continue chest therapy (which she loves) and review the x-rays in the morning.  We are hoping overnight she is able to continue to decrease her oxygen support.

  In other news, the doctors have weened her off one of her heart medicines and have dropped the levels of her pain and sedation medicines.  Today she was a little more awake than the last copye of days.  She needs to be more awake as they remove the breathing tube so they can assess how she handles it.  We are eagerly awaiting the removal of tubes, bit we also know that slow and steady is the way to get the best results.  We love see her awake, but also welcome all the sleep she can get.