Extubated!

Jake has traded in his breathing tube for a funky new hat!

After a rocky start, Jake is handling extubation well. He was very agitated and upset after they took the tube out. They stopped his morphine and versed at 9am and didn't give him adivant and methdone until 3pm. I had warned them all day not to let him go into withdrawal but no one listened. I think sometimes doctors think too clinically. "Take him off his meds to see what he can do. If he goes into withdrawal we can give him meds then." They don't take into consideration the pain the patient goes through and the anguish thier parents feel helplessly watching. You constantly need to advocate for your child in here! He's on a BiPAP machine now which provides his lungs pressure support while he breathes on his own. It's quite a ridiculous contraption but does the trick to help get Jake back to breathing on his own.

BEFORE

AFTER

Jake failed his first extubation in Boston. We were devestaed at the time, but it turned out to be one of the best things for him. A developing infection kept him from succeeding the first time. That infection gave us precious time for his ventricle to begin functioning better and allowed everyone to hold off on decision making for a week.

Here is the before and after from Boston when he was just 2 weeks old.

BEFORE

AFTER