It Takes Time

Kekoa's real success is with his lungs. On his very first day of life Kekoa had a pulmonary hemorrhage which, I just found out, almost took his life. Since then he has had many many difficulties with his lung development. Other than his lungs, he is doing well and progressing each day. He hovers around 5 lbs, some days he is an ounce or two under and other days he is an ounce or two over. He is also 16.5" long which is three inches longer than he was at birth.

The NPCPAP makes him a very cranky baby and in turn makes a very cranky mommy. It is hard to see your baby in pain and screaming and it is even harder to not be able to do anything about it. Soon enough I'll be able to give him all the love and comfort he can handle. P.S. I would be cranky too if I had a huge stiff tube shoved up my nose and changed out on a daily basis. I think he has every right to be angry, it's just hard for me to be a helpless bystander.

So here is a summary of all of Kekoa's ventilator support. The Jet Ventilator would provide him with 480 breaths per minute. This helped to keep his lungs from collapsing on a daily basis. It then would give him 10-20 regular breaths per minute. He was on this ventilator for close to two months. He then was converted to the conventional ventilator which no longer gave him the high frequency breaths but instead gave him 10-35 breaths per minute. The number of breaths per minute that he received depended on how well he was doing with breathing on his own. Once he conquered the conventional ventilator he was converted to NPCPAP which is a constant pressure (flow) of oxygen through a tube that is inserted into his nose. The tube is inserted into the nose all the way until it essentially reaches the back of his throat. This allows the oxygen to enter into his lungs and keep them expanded while he is required to do all of the breathing on his own.

Considering the severity of his lung disease he has progressed really well over the past couple of weeks. Initially the doctors thought he would have to be on the Jet Ventilator for another two months but he went from Jet to NPCPAP in about one week. He is doing great and we hope and pray that it continues so that he can make it to the nasal cannula just like Makaio (hopefully this will happen within the next couple of weeks) with the hope of being transferred to Minnesota soon and having our entire family together again.

Jet Ventilator

Conventional Ventilator

NPCPAP