December 13th

MY mom and Dad came over with Mark about 7:00 am, so I went to shower and feel like a human after spending the night in the PICU waiting room. After Mark, Grandma and Papa were able to see her they came and got me and we went to breakfast. Ella was doing fine at the time so we took the time for a nice breakfast at Dagwood's.

When we got back by 10:15 we became concerned. Her breathing seems to be extraordinarily labored and she was constantly whimpering with every breath. We talk to the respiratory therapist and the nurses and the residents and anyone who came in about it and it was all considered to be "normal" after being on a respirator and that her lungs were clear, but we didn't buy it. It was so hard to see her in pain and not be able to find the problem! So much so that you had to leave or have a nervous break down right then and there.

One of us stayed with her and continued to "hound" in a nice way, about her breathing and whimpering. Around 12:30ish Jessica the nurse for the day, suggested that I hold her to see if that would help comfort her some, which it did for awhile. The O2 monitor came off while doing so and so they had to get it back on which seem to be impossible. They could not get it to read. Jessica finally went and got the respiratory therapist who also couldn't get it took work. After spending about 5 minutes or more kneeling at my feet trying to get it on I had them help me put her back down so they could get it on. Since they did not know what her leaves were they went ahead and used the O2 mask while they got the monitor on. After it was back on her breathing became even more labored and she could not hold her O2 without the make on so the resident and the on attending Doc, Doc Allen started paying a little more attention. Finally they ordered another chest x-ray and discovered that her lungs were indeed filling up with fluid. Her body and her lungs were having problems dealing with all the extra fluid. So it was back on the ventilator.

They hooked her up to a Bi-pap to create positive airway pressure, and force her lungs to expand to capacity with every breath and help the body force the fluid out. It worked but they had to mildly sedate her again and strap that mask down tight enough that it left little reddish blisters where it rubbed her face. So Wednesday was spent out and hooked up to machines.