Off the high-flow

Colin is off the high-flow oxygen and down to a regular nasal cannula (for now at least — you’ll have to excuse me if I remain a little paranoid about any progress we make on this front, given our past experiences). 

Last night he pulled out his feeding tube and his cannula. He wasn’t having any trouble breathing at the moment, and he was getting a little stinky (the tape they use to hold everything in place also traps milk, formula, spit … you get the picture), so his nurse decided to leave it out for a bit and clean him up. 

Colin continued to do well without the oxygen, so when the doctor came by the nurse called him in and showed him how well Colin was doing without oxygen and asked if she could leave it out and see how long he could go without the extra help. The doctor looked at John (who was there for this whole episode), who shrugged, so the doctor said sure, they could try it.

Colin made it through most of the night without any oxygen, and when John called at 4:30 this morning to check on him the only question was whether he would have to go back on the high-flow or if the doctor would approve the switch to the regular nasal cannula. 

I arrived to feed Colin at 8:00, and was very excited to see the “HF” was no longer next to his name on the board. And sure enough, when I went into the nursery the high-flow equipment was gone. 

Colin also did very well on his feeds all night. The only feeding he needed the tube for was the 6 a.m. feeding, and that was just because the nurse didn’t want him tired when I came to feed him at 9:00. (It didn’t work, he had no interest in eating at 9:00. But we had good success at noon, so no complaint.)

So we’ll see whether he can continue to do well with the lower oxygen intervention. But for now, we are quite pleased.