I received a call from Kinley's pediatrician's office this morning. They had called and talked with the dietitians and doctors at Children's Mercy and decided that Kinley could have an apnea monitor! An apnea monitor is a machine that will monitor Kinley's heart rate and respiratory status. We will hook Kinley up to the monitor during the night while her feeding pump is running. It is a pretty small machine and just has a strap that will go around Kinley's chest. It is very loud when it rings off though (sounds like a fire alarm), which is good since I have slept through a few alarms since Kinley has been home. Having the apnea monitor now means that we can do longer feeds at night through her NG tube and we can sleep while the feeding pump is on since Kinley will be monitored by the machine. Thank goodness because I don't know how much longer I could have lasted on 30 minutes of sleep per night.
I was really impressed that Kinley's pediatrician took the initiative to call Children's Mercy and get this set up so quickly. I thought we would have to wait until our appointment tomorrow, and then start the process of possibly getting a monitor. Apria, the company that handles Kinley's home equipment was also great and delivered the machine around 7:00 PM tonight.
Kinley has continued to do well with her bottle feeds now that Kevin and I have been taking her NG tube out during the day. Her reflux seems 100 times better and she has not thrown up at all today while the NG tube has been out!! She is continuing to increase her intake by bottle and even took a full bottle at one feeding today. She seems to be tolerating the increased tube feeds at night just as well. Way to go Kinley! She did throw up a little bit this morning around 7:00 AM, but not bad enough for her tube to come out. That was good since I try to give Kinley as many meds as possible through her NG tube in the morning before pulling it out for the day. As long as she has the tube in I see no reason to make her take yucky meds orally.
We will still see the pediatrician tomorrow since he wants to talk to us in person about Kinley's new feeding plan, so we will let you know how that goes tomorrow.
Now we can concentrate on getting Kinley set up with the OT from Infant-Toddler. Kinley still needs help to increase the amount of milk she takes from the bottle and she needs to start eating quicker so that she does not get so tired during feedings.
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3 comments:
I am so glad things are going so well! And how awesome to have a pediatrician that is so on top of everything!
It's so good that you will now have the apnea monitor. We used it with Juan pablo since he made several apnea episodes and it helped a lot.
Just catching up! Sounds like feeding is going really well! I think once she gets it you'll start seeing HUGE improvements on a daily basis! That's what we saw with Cadenne! Go, Kinley, go!!
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