Damaged Lungs

Today was a scary day. Camden's CO2 keep going up. This is primarily because of all the damage her lungs have encountered since her birth. Though she needs a ventilator to breath, the ventilator itself can cause damage to her precious lungs. The nurses were also having a hard time maintaining her O2 stats as well, but it was not as big of a concern as the CO2.

The big problem with the high CO2 is Respiratory Acidosis. Basically, the CO2 combines with the water in her blood to form carbonic acid. This weak acid then lowers Camden's pH which in turn causes damage to her blood cells and tissues. Even with the chemical paralysis and the high frequency ventilator, her CO2 levels keep going up. Chest X-rays showed the lungs to be highly damaged and rigid. They attempted to switch Camden to a normal Drager ventilator, but this resulted in a sharp increase in her CO2 levels and a drop in her pH. After switching her back to the high frequency ventilator, they performed another X-ray and noted that one lung was not as inflated as the other. This indicated that there was possibly a small air leak in the under-inflated lung which caused pressure to build outside the lung and preventing it from fully inflating. To fix this, the doctor installed a chest tube to help relieve the excess pressure.

Since the chest tube was installed, Camden's O2 and CO2 stats have gotten a little better. Still not at the ideal levels yet, but better. Just when we thought her lungs were doing well and we should worry about her head, everything gets turned upside-down.

The real painful part is the doctors and nurses seem to get less and less upbeat. The victories are getting smaller. I am glad they found a leak, because at least that is something they can do something about. Other than that, all we can do it wait, make her comfortable, and try and set her up so she can heal. Just wait...

Paul