After an uneventful night last night, Rowan greeted his day nurse this morning with an episode of rapid oxygen desaturation and never really let up from there. Throughout the morning he continued to show signs of discomfort and low oxygen as the medical team kept tweaking and modifying things in an attempt to improve the situation. By early afternoon his medical team decided that the safest course of action would be to switch him from a CPAP to a full intubation, and to sedate him to calm him down a bit. He’s looking much more stable this evening – good colour, less puffiness, eyes blinking. He’s clearly been working hard to breathe on his own the last couple of days, so now that he’s able to have a break and let the machines do the work he’s a lot more comfortable.
The switch to intubation and a nasal feeding tube triggered two more x-rays today, one of which showed that a small part of his lung had collapsed. The doctors are working to “re-inflate” it, but it’s not a huge concern given that he’s not breathing on his own. The x-rays also showed more of… something… in his lungs. Secretions? Infection? Doctors aren’t sure. Whatever it is, it’s not responding to the antibiotics he’s on, so yesterday’s diagnosis of pneumonia may have been premature. For now it’s just another medical puzzle from our medical puzzlemaster.
Neurology popped down this afternoon and confirmed that Rowan has had no seizures since his EEG was put on, including a couple of times we/the team had noticed seizure-like activity. So that’s really good. Hoping tomorrow brings more good news and maybe even some answers.