Recent trach not helping - any ideas

HI

My mother in law has been living with lung problems for the last few years, as the result of a sever case of phneumonia (sp). She has been on oxygen ever since (nasal tube), as well as several non-invasive breathing assistance machines. Her Blood Gas levels have been getting worse and worse, and she was recently told that her only solution was to have a Trach put in, and be put on a ventilator. She had the Trach about 3 weeks ago, and after a long struggle has finally started to get used to the ventilator. The problem is, her blood gasses are not improving. They fear that very soon her kidneys and other organs will start shutting down if they cannot find a way to get her levels back to normal. She is having a lot of Phlem (sp) problems as well, which I am sure must be affecting her lung capacity and effectiveness.

The doctors are stumped on what to try next, and my wife and I have been searching for answers on our own.

If there is anyone out there who has gone through a similar experience, and may have some insight, we would love to hear.

Thanks a lot, and god bless.

[sandra]

I'm sorry you are going through this and hope you mother in law gets better. My only advice would be to get a second opinion about her vent settings. My experience is with a child, so it may be different, but I know that his vent settings made a big difference in his blood gases. Your MIL may need more pressure, less pressure support, volume instead of pressure support. There are a lot of variables and her pulmo. really needs to be experienced with vents.

As far as the secretions, does she have a heated circuit on her vent? The dr's can play with the heater settings to try and help with that. They can also use a nebulized medication such as dornase to thin secretions. You might ask about nebulized meds that can thin the secretions, so they are more manageable.

Sandra

I wanted to Thank you SOOOO Much for your post. I passed this information on to my father in Law, who really pushed the team of doctors into seeking the help of a respirologist in the same hospital. Within a few hours this wonderful lady had the settings just right. Since then, her Gasses are almost down to normal, and they are talking about sending her home with the ventilator.

They were getting ready to give up, and I think this forced them into "rethinking" their approach. They had planned on removing the Trach, and putting her back on just oxygen. Her Carbon dioxide levels had spiked to 140!!. They said most people with those levels would have their organs start to shut down.

Anyways, we are still not out of the woods, but things are looking up. Thank you very much for taking the time to reply to my post.

cheers
Jody

[sassyangel4u2nv]

Way to go mom... I hope she is feeling better soon. Welcome to the room and hpefully you will get some more help along the way..

[sandra]

I'm glad to hear that your MIL is doing better. I hope she continues to improve and gets to come home!