New ET Tubes

We've been hoping the girls would get new ET tubes for awhile now, because they've had leaks around the others ones. You know when the leak is consistently high because an extremely loud bell goes off. For both of them the leak has been mostly positional so they try to arrange the tube or the girls to silence the constant alarm. The reason for waiting to reintubate with a bigger tube is because typically the girls have to be above 1000 grams.

Yesterday Emma decided she was definitely going to get a new tube no matter what. I had just sat down to do my "mommy business," when I noticed that Emma's stats (pulse, O2, ect.) were decreasing quickly. I could hear quite a bit of commotion from behind the curtain I had closed for privacy. I jumped up scared to death and opened the curtain to see a room full of people working on her. The were bagging her to help bring her stats back up, and this seemed to be working. The doc told me that Emma needed a new tube because he believed the one she had had "goobers" on the end of it not allowing air to pass through. He said he would look to see if the bigger tube would fit before replacing the tube. I couldn't watch them reintubate her so I closed the curtain, sat with Abby, and tried to keep myself composed. These situations always seem to cause much anxiety and fear that I have trouble not being overwhelmed with emotion. Dr. Stapley came in afterwards and told me that they were done, and the bigger tube went in great.

After the success of getting Emma a bigger tube, they decided to go ahead and see if Abby was ready for the 3.0 tube. I have to say this tube replacement wasn't near as scary since they were able to prepare for it unlike Emma's. Moments later they had the tube in. Since replacing the tube her vent settings have improved. Both girls are almost at room air, and they are continuing to decrease (slowly) their respiratory rate. It's amazing how quiet their rooms were yesterday.....very few alarms dinging!! When it's all said and down I guess Emma's little episode worked out for the best, but I'd be happy with a lot less drama.