Keeping me on my toes :-)

Last night Ali's cough wasn't quite as bad as it had been, and yet at bedtime her heartrate was running very high, her o2 sats were slightly lower than normal, and she was EXTREMELY restless.  I had her feeding pump running and thought she would eventually settle down to sleep.  While she did seem to fall asleep eventually, her sleep was very restless, she looked like she was wresting her thumb, and her heart rate stayed unusually high.  Normally she sleeps through the night, but last night she just never really settled in.  So quite a bit later I decided to get her up to see if there was something I was missing, worrying maybe her cold was worsening even though she wasn't coughing.  As I picked her up, I noticed she was soaking wet.  Apparently sometime during her fitful sleep she disconnected her feeding tube extension from her button and we had ended up "feeding the bed."  I thought the fitfullness must have been due to being wet and hungry, but even after getting her feeding restarted, she was still restless.  Ughh...  Finally it dawned on me, her TOOTH!  After a little tooth medicine she fell fast asleep and her heart rate dropped back to normal.  When will I learn to look for the simple causes and solutions first?

Then tonight Miguel came running into the room telling me his 2 year old sister had pulled out Alegria's fully inflated g-tube.  At that point, I wasn't honestly sure if he had seen it happen or just saw the evidence of it.  So I hurried into assess the situation with my adrenaline pumping.  There is only a short window of time to reinsert the button before the stoma starts closing completely, it is best to have it replaced in under an hour, or it may not be possible to replace it.  So anyway I get to Alegria and she is perfectly calm, not crying a bit.  The g-tube is laying on the ground next to her.  I yelled for someone to run and get me a syringe, and then remembered to lubricate the g-tube.  I deflated the balloon and it went right in!  WHEW!  After resolving the crisis, I figured out that it that Anica had been pulling a laundry basket past where Ali sat in her rocking chair and caught the feeding tube on it.  Miguel had actually seen it happen, so it was less than 5 min from the time it got pulled until I had it replaced.

I think one of Alegria's jobs must be to keep me on my toes!

She is still sick, but seems slightly better than yesterday.  I am hoping and praying she is starting to recuperate.  AND that we all get a good night's sleep tonight :-)

Thanks for all your prayers,
Jill