I made it to Pittsburgh! It has been a long time since I have gone anywhere and 2 nights away from Casey is the most I have ever done. This trip is actually pretty exciting for me. When I merged CLU with MOM a while back I have a business partner now, Anita. We have talked on the phone and online many times, but I have never actually met her. She came in from Columbus, Ohio for the conference as well.
Neotech is a company that we have been using since Casey was born. Our very first picture of Casey taken just hours after her birth has Neotech products in the background. We use a lot of their products, but the ones we use most are the suction tips. They have been more than generous over the years as sponsors of MOM. Anita and I are joining Neotech (Judy & Sara) at their booth for the conference. We are here to tell families about Neotech products as well as all about MOM. being able to be at the conference to meet all of the families was great enough, but Neotech really spoiled us. We got to go out to nice dinners, we had great rooms, and they even paid us for working the booth with them.
On Wednesday evening I talked to Tim. He said Casey was a bit whiny and had some blood so he and Jodi (her nurse) tried to give her some carafate. When she refluxes belly blood we usually suction out what we can then put carafate in through a catheter into her stomach. There were a couple of times before I left that I went to do this and the catheter clogs not letting her get any of the medicine. I didn’t think much of it since she had been having all of the issues with her antibiotics. Tim told me that he and Jodi were not able to get the meds in either. They had the catheter clog right up just like I had. He wasn’t too worried though. Casey was a little whiny, but over all she seemed to be okay.
I had planned on getting home Friday evening/night and then staying up all night with Casey Friday and Saturday since we did not have a nurse scheduled. While I was in PA one of our nurses told me she could do Saturday. Another nurse picked up Friday as well. When I walked in the door though Casey was doing really bad. The Friday night nurse is pretty new and not able to really help if Casey is not doing well. I came in and went straight to work trying to get all of the crud out of Casey’s airway. Her heart rate was really high, she was on oxygen and it she looked awful. I got her cleared out enough where she was able to breath without the oxygen, but her heart rate was still really high. She seemed to be calming down some so I went and got a little bit of sleep.
On Saturday Casey and I spent the entire day doing breathing treatments, aggressive suctioning and lots of CPT (gently beating on her lungs to break up any crud). We continued this on Sunday as well. The crud that was coming out of her is what we usually see with a pneumonia. I planned to call the doctor Monday morning if I could not get things cleared out before. Late Sunday afternoon her secretions started to look a lot better. There was still a ton of them and she was still miserable, but the color was better and her heart rate was finally better.
As much a I needed and appreciated the 2 nights away I think any over nights in my future will have to get me back home in 24 hours or less. It was a good trip though. We met some amazing families. I was so happy to meet Anita as well. I knew we got along virtually, and I was very happy that we got along great in person too. Her son is a lot like Casey and she and I rely on each other a lot when we are having challenging days/weeks.