Aspiration

Kaitlyn aspirated something very early this morning. Tim woke up when he heard Kaitlyn struggling with secretions. When he went over to her he said that she had a mouthful. She aspirated some of the secretions and her sats began dropping really fast. She only went down into the low 80's, but it was still pretty scary. It took several rounds of coughing to keep her sats from dropping further than mid-80's. I finally fumbled the O2 tank on, and we bled O2 through the cough-assist for a few more coughs. This really does the trick when she is dropping fast. She finally came back up to high 80's low 90's, but needed a little rest from coughing so much. Tim placed her in postural drainage and put her back on her bi-pap. She was satting 93-94 at this time. I started some chest percussions to help move secretions. With a few minutes rest and lots of suctioning, I coughed Kaitlyn again. She seemed a little better, satting 94-95 off bi-pap.

I put her back on bi-pap to sleep the rest of the night. I checked her temp. before crawling back to bed myself and it was 36.8 which is perfect for Kaitlyn. When she got up this morning she was satting 98 on bi-pap. She did really well through her first set of coughs, chest physio, and more coughs. I got her out of her crib, washed and dressed the same as always. She is maintaining sats of about 95% off bi-pap. Her heart rate is elevated and her temp. was up to 39.2 by 9:30am. We tried to call our pediatrician, but she didn't answer the page, so we got the on-call pediatrician at our local hospital. She has called in an antibiotic for Kaitlyn, so we will start that as soon as it's available.