Movin’ on Up – April 4th

Dallas had a pretty restless night with lots of coughing—working hard to clear the mucus that’s been hanging out in the upper respiratory area, especially near the back of her throat. It’s exhausting work, but she’s been giving it all she’s got. Proud of our girl.

This morning started with PT dropping in. They’ve now asked us to stretch Dallas every hour for 30 seconds—ankles, knees, hips, hands, arms, even her head. Added to the mix: some time each day sitting in her chair. Just like with most things, we’re finding a rhythm, and this new positioning/stretching schedule will hopefully help keep her body loose and blood flowing.

Big news for today—we officially moved up to the 6th floor! Not quite the Jeffersons, but we are definitely “Movin’ on Up!” 😄 So excited about this shift. The room feels a little more like a space for healing. We’re now allowed to bring the flowers into the room (instead of staring at them from outside the PICU door), and even better—we can snuggle up in bed with Dallas and sleep beside her if we want. Major upgrades.

We met with the new care team on the floor—both the fellow and attending. They’ve already added Zyrtec to her meds today in hopes it’ll help with the mucus. They also made sure the chart now notes to pause feeds 30 minutes before cough assist to reduce the risk of throwing up. They may reintroduce bolus feeds soon, but they’ll go slow and keep a close eye on how she tolerates them.

Speaking of that—cough assist at 9am did lead to some vomiting, unfortunately. But the care team is on it. They’re working to get cough assist on a regular schedule to better coordinate timing around feedings and hopefully prevent that from happening again.

The good news: the coughing has definitely slowed down compared to yesterday. RT Terry came by for the afternoon session, and it went smoothly. Another session is scheduled for this evening, but if Dallas is still doing well, we may hold off and let her rest.

They’ve also added eye drops every couple of hours to her plan, since she tends to keep her eyes slightly open (no blinking) and we want to keep them from drying out.

Heather’s holding down the fort on night shift again tonight. We’ve got two nurses this evening (one of them in training, perhaps), so the repositioning, turning, and diaper changes are covered. With any luck, this will give Heather a chance to catch up on a little rest. Plan is, if the coughing picks back up during the night, we’ll jump in early with cough assist and/or chest PT to stay ahead of it.

Still so many little battles to fight, but today feels like a step forward in a big way. 💛

“Courage doesn’t always roar. Sometimes courage is the quiet voice at the end of the day saying, ‘I will try again tomorrow.’” — Mary Anne Radmacher

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