Slow day for progress...

Rob hasn't made much progress today on his ventilator settings. He's back up to an oxygen level of 50% and a PEEP level of 9. The doctor would like to give him another shot at it tomorrow but if he's still not making progress, they will plan to do a tracheostomy on Wednesday. This would allow them to take the breathing tube out of this mouth and attach the ventilator through a port inserted into his throat. It will be much more comfortable for him and be easier to wean him off breathing assistance when he is ready. With a trache in place, they can remove the ventilator connection for a period of time to allow him to breathe on his own for a while. Then when he is tired, they can hook it back up to allow him to rest. It would be much easier for him to handle that and to be able to come out of sedation more than it would be to be sedated while on the breathing tube. The doctor he has this week is a surgeon as well as in intensivist so she could perform the procedure right at his bedside in the SICU unit without having to go into the Operating Room. With as much trouble as he was having today with the breathing tube and sedation levels, I would almost rather see him with a trache in place than fighting the vent like he is now. The trache will have a little less risk of him developing pneumonia as well.

So the plan is to let him rest overnight and see how he handles his levels tomorrow. Then if things aren't progressing much, they will perform the tracheostomy on Wednesday.

Please keep sending your prayers Rob's way. He's fighting to make progress but he's struggling a little right now.

Kelly