Monday, November 06, 2006

No nursing care after-all



We thought we would be welcoming a new nurse into our homes tonight who would help with Joshua's care while I slept. That nurse would have been watching Josh's vent settings and monitors to make any changes that would keep his oxygen and carbon dioxide levels at their best among other things. But the nursing company who was going to provide that nurse reports that they have nobody who can come and do that during the night after-all. They will let me know in a few days if they find someone - but for now, I am still on my own.

Last night, about 3:30 in the morning, I heard Josh's alarms going off then stop, going off then stop - a few times - and got up to go check on him. Once inside his room, I heard a strange sound with the tubes - and found that his trach tube had been pulled outside of his neck! Thank God, I had the presence of mind to figure out what I needed to do to get the trach back in the right place. I had a time getting the chain around his neck that holds the trach in place off so I could replace the trach. I had to turn on the big light and wake Josh completely so I could get him to take bigger breaths - because he was de-satting. Finally, I got everything back in place and got him back to sleep.

A few minutes after getting back into bed while starting to worry about what the nurse would have done if he or she had been there and witnessed the trach incident, all of a sudden, the house shook with loud thunder outside. Storms moved through from like 4AM all the way through 6:30 or so this morning. So, then I was worrying about the electricity going off and interfering with Josh's ventilator - which thankfully did not happen. But it sure made it difficult to get on up and get going this morning.

You gotta find the good and remember that God is responsible for that and realize God is there to see us through the rest of the stuff.