Weaning, weaning, weaning......

Averi continues to be stable. The doctors have increased the ventilator to provide 60 breaths per minute. It was previously at 45bpm. The increase was done to help vent the excess carbon dioxide out of her blood. So far, this seems to be working! They are now weaning the oxygen again. Averi is currently on 80% O2 & they want her down to 50%. Once they get to 50%, they can start weaning the iNO from 20 to 0 for surgery purposes. The iNO is administered through the ventilator, and helps to reduce pulmonary hypertension. It relaxes the blood vessels in the lung. This allows the blood to flow through the lungs more easily.

For those who want to read more about CDH, I found this site which is pretty succinct. Some of the stats are not very accurate, but the descriptions, diagrams and pictures might be helpful. A wealth of information can also be found at the CHERUBS website.