My mother in law who is a vent protocol survivor was on the mend and was killing it on the rehab front (she was up and walking around, getting dressed, the works, almost on the verge of coming home) when she managed to get sick with a stomach bug and was reinfected with aspirational pneumonia yesterday. She's been submitted to ICU with high CO2 levels. Different facility this time and the docs are doing everything to keep her off the ventilator. She's been seeing her CO2 levels drop a bit in the last few hours, but she's got a long haul again. You pedes did it the last time with the power of prayer and I'm asking for help once again.
Thanks!
Love you guys!
Rusty...
Thank you!
Keep us posted on her progress, fren!
I will, at the moment her CO2 is down and she's lightly sedated on a vent. She wasn't able to get her CO2 down because she was fighting the CPAP to breath in all the high flow O2. They said her lungs are too damaged currently to scrub the CO2 out of her body efficiently. Now it seems she's on the long road again. But she's tough and she's a fighter, so I have hope she can get off the vent again!
Thanks
I use a CPAP for sleep apnea. From personal experience, it's harder to breathe with CPAP if you tense up and fight it and attempt to take deep breaths, then shove them out when you exhale. If you relax and take normal breaths that aren't quite so deep, then it's much easier. I know, it's sometimes easier said than done. Your lungs will eventually get used to the pressure and will adapt such that you will barely notice it over time.
You may want to inquire into what air pressure they're using and see if dropping it back a bit might help. It's definitely something that you need to work your way up to, as your lungs will get stronger over time.
I know they had tried backing it down a bit, and they were monitoring it.