Hospital Transfers

Norah had a big day on Monday. She transferred from the PICU at Primary Children's to South Davis. Life Flight came to transfer her via ambulance since she needed special respiratory support. I rode in the front of the ambulance, where they had a little Big Brother-esque camera on board so I was able to see her throughout the ride. Once she was (mostly) settled on the new ventilator, she slept soundly.

Upon arriving to South Davis, she was swiftly transferred and gushed over by the staff there. They all adore Norah, but it really is hard not to. On Friday we had a meeting to discuss Norah's care plan. Throughout her stay they found her to be a bit difficult to comfort, and she frequently seemed either uncomfortable or in pain. This is very much unlike her typical peaceful self, so it was clear something wasn't quite right. The old tricks didn't seem to help much, either: blanket swaddles, cuddles, binky, music... she just can't seem to get comfortable. On top of that, her CO2 has shot up again. When she gets upset, it sometimes rises above 100, which is no bueno at all. 

Shortly after getting home from our meeting and visit on Friday, I got a phone call from the charge nurse at South Davis. The doctor had decided to transfer Norah back to the PICU at Primary Children's. Her CO2 was just too high, and she didn't want to take any risks. Primary Children's has a pretty fancy ventilator, and it seemed that perhaps Norah just needed that extra support and more intensive care until she could stabilize again. 

So back we went. It was nice to see familiar faces in both Life Flight as well as at the PICU. As nice as that is, we'd rather her not have to take this step backwards. The plan is to transition her a bit more slowly to the different ventilator. They're putting her on something similar to what they have at South Davis, and transferring her to the regular floor of the hospital instead of the PICU. From there, we hope to transfer her back to South Davis (again via Life Flight) with a gradual transition to their ventilators. But for now, she's much more comfortable than she's been all week. She sure does love that PICU.

The first photo (above) is her first Life Flight trip to South Davis, and the second photo (below) is of her trip back to Primary Children's. They even gave her cute little t-shirts with a Life Flight helicopter on them. When all is said and done, she'll have an entire wardrobe of those shirts.