One of the more unpleasant aspects of my life is finding and training new nurses for Dakin. One of our night nurses left us this week, so we had a new one last night. Dakin liked her, which says a lot. However, it was just one of those nights where everything went wrong. He was satting a little lower than normal (he was about 94%--he's usually 98-100%), so I stuck him on some oxygen, thinking that with the weather change and our trip to Santaland he might have been lower than normal. His breathing treatment didn't do much to help the sat issue, so he stayed on O2 most of the night. He's also pushing a molar, so I gave him some Motrin to help with the discomfort. In addition to his lower sats, the pulseoximeter was not reading correctly (NOWHERE we put it would it read!!!!!!), and the O2 machine decided it didn't want to work either. So needless to say, I was up all. night. long. So was Dakin, for that matter...he finally got into a good sleep about 6 am, and we both got to sleep until 10 am. Thank goodness. I'm exhausted.
It's always hard with a new nurse, because she doesn't know how to read him, you know? I think she was overly worried all night because he makes noises while he sleeps (artificial ventilation+huge leak around his trach = involuntary vocalization as air is pushed through his vocal cords). He does it all the time, even while sleeping, and it is no cause for concern, but she doesn't know that, so she had me up all night checking on that too. Sigh. Thank goodness our other nurse is here tonight and I can sleep. Three wonderful nights of sleep. After that, I'm not sure what we'll do...I don't know if the nurse we had last night will work out or not. Guess we'll see.
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9 comments:
We know how that goes, we have one fabulous nurse and another new one who I don't think is going to work. Good luck and hope you get plenty of rest today.
Wish you all lived closer, because I would help out with that cutie!
I am so sorry about the long night!! I am sure you get used to getting your sleep and then when you have to spend the night "training", it is hard to adjust back. At least you have that beautiful boy to look at when you do get up in the middle of the night. He is just so darn cute!!
I dont have nurses, but I have heard lots of stories from other SMA parents. I hope she pans out and turns into a great night nurse for you guys. I also hope Mr man keeps his stats up tonight and you get some good sleep!!!!
Maybe you should see if they could have the new nurses work with some of the ones who have been around. That way they wont be around him with a clean slate and not knowing what to do. Good luck. See everyone on Sunday.
So sorry about the long night. That definitely makes everything that much harder.
Ugh, that sounds like such a huge hassle, I really hope that she works out for you just so you don't have to go through the headache of having to train another new person...GOOD LUCK!!
I get the new nervous nurse thing. Holidays are hard. Nurses come and go based on their holiday schedual. Glad you regular nurse came back. Thank goodness for them. Glad you finally got some sleep.
i totally understand. New nervouse Nurses are hard. Glad you got some sleep. Glad the regular nurse came back.
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