What was planned to be an early night to bed for some good rest ended at 10:15pm
with a call from the on-call doctor. Reid's oxygen levels kept falling and were not able to be rescued with 100% oxygen. They were placing Reid on a new breathing device called an high frequency oscillator (HFO). This machine, unlike the ventilator and taking breaths, keeps his lungs fully inflated and vibrates oxygen into the air sacs. Instead of the usual 50-60 breaths per minute, this machine is giving him the equivalent of about 600-900 per minute. In addition to helping with his oxygen saturation, this is also supposed to help blow off some of the carbon dioxide.

When we got to the hospital, Reid laid limp on his bed as they had given him morphine for the agitation/pain and a paralytic to keep him from moving (which they will give him every hour). His stomach looked gorged as the oscillator keeps his lungs full and his body (mostly his chest) was vibrating as the machine pumped the air in and out of him at a very high rate. His oxygen saturation was in the mid-50s (they like these to be in the upper 80s and lower 90s) and his CO2 level was 98 (ideally supposed to be below 50). After what seemed to be an eternity with little to no change on the oscillator, they did an xray only to find out his tube was down too far and was blocking air onto his left lung. A slight movement of the tube bumped his oxygen saturation into the 70s but they were still not happy. They then brought in nitric oxide on a cart and hooked it up to the oscillator. This gas (which is supposedly called the gaseous form of Viagra) helps dilate his veins in his lungs to allow for better oxygen saturation. Within a minute, his monitor was showing good numbers and and a blood test showed oxygen saturation of 87 and a carbon dioxide reading of 38.

He seemed to be fairly stable and the doctors were not planning on doing anything else at the moment and just playing the waiting game to see if he would saturate around the 90s so that they could wean him off the 100% oxygen. And being the fact that it was about 2:00am, Kristen and I headed home to try and get a little bit of sleep. I will call around 5:30am to see if there is any change and might make another trip in depending on the outcome of the call.

I will post more in the morning. Been a long night and not sure we have had a chance to digest all that is going on. I don't think I will be able to tell you how exactly this machine works or what all of the numbers mean... this one is far too complex for me!