Vent weaning

Today was vent clinic and I was so excited to be able to let Dr. G know how well Autumn's been doing on the vent trials I've decided to start with her. He was equally excited and impressed. He wants to be more aggressive than I've been and wants us to do 30 mins twice a day for a week, then 1 hour twice a day for another week, and then 2 hours twice a day for another week. After she does the 2 hour trials I am to call them back and let them know how she's doing and if we need to scale back or move forward. I've been leaving her vent on during trials "just in case" but he said to turn the vent off and she will be fine. I'm going to keep in on for at least the first week though just to make sure. ;) Her x-rays and blood gas came back great as usual. She did grow 2 inches and is now an entire 27 inches long but her weight gain was low...she was 18 pounds at last vent clinic and only 18.5 this time. Two weeks ago she was 19.6 pounds at the dr. office so they want to increase her calories. We are just going to try adding butter or oil to her meals to increase the calories...we could add a few more ounces of pediasure but since they are in 8 oz. cans we don't want to have left over after each day so we will see if the butter/oil will work first. So, we are having a joyful day knowing we are moving forward with vent weaning and just praying she will be able to handle the changes.

Oh, and every vent clinic James and I pick up Lenny's Sub Sandwiches to take to eat at clinic while we are waiting. Today Autumn LOVED the turkey sub I got and just kept eating and eating the turkey. She usually gags on meats but this meat she kept shoving down her mouth. So, fine shaved turkey meat will be on my next grocery list for her, as well as the cheese she ate up just as well. We still are working with trying to get her to drink liquids....Dr. G said maybe once we move here we can put her in the feeding program at the hospital which is about 6 weeks long, they really work with getting the trach kids completely eating and drinking by mouth and almost always successful.

So, after her eye surgery in 2 weeks we will not have to be back to Dallas until January 19th for vent clinic....Whoo Hoo...happy holidays to us!