Happy Monday everyone! I have some good news! Jude is off high-flow and on low-flow. The difference between the two is that low flow is variable and does not meet the demand of the patient, whereas high-flow is fixed and meets the demand. On low-flow the oxygen is diluted therefore the FiO2 gets diluted. All medical gas delivery devices mix a fixed quantity of oxygen with a quantity of air to provide the patient with the desired fractional inspired oxygen concentration (FIO2). High flow devices control the flow of both oxygen and air and perform the gas mixing function within the device. Control of both gases plus internal gas mixing provides a precise FIO2 at a flow rate high enough to meet or exceed the patient’s peak inspiratory demand. With that said, when Jude was on high flow he was getting a fixed FiO2 of 28% at 2 liters. Now that hes on low-flow, hes hes at 1/8 (a fraction!) of a liter at 100% oxygen, but hes only theoretically getting between 21-24%, so that is a huge improvement!!! He will need to step down to 1/16th then 1/32nd then off of oxygen completely. They tried weaning to 1/16th but his oxygen saturation dropped after about two minutes. One step closer!! The low flow system is nice also because its super quite (the high flow was noisy...literally sounded like a wind tunnel when he was on 6 liters) and really easy to maneuver him in and out of bed. Its easier for him to eat due to less flow being forced through his nares. So, since were doing so good we will be taking a little field trip to Kaiser tomorrow. Even though Im really sad to be leaving the amazing team that has been taking care of Jude and I for the past 3 1/2 months, it means we are that much closer to going home. Were really going to miss everyone at CRMC NICU! Truly the best level 3 NICU in the valley! We are so happy and so blessed that Jude is doing well. Im not sure how much longer we will have in the hospital, but God has given us an extra measure of strength to make it through till the end of this journey and on to the next. Thank you for your prayers and support. We love you all!
Posted on: Tue, 08 Jul 2014 02:43:47 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015