Let's not hold our breathe

Ok, ok, literally - we don't want Jack Henry to hold his breathe because ...


... he's off of CPAP!

Elaine and I called this morning before heading into the hospital and were quite surprised to see that Jack Henry was off of supplemental air pressure. I suppose it wasn't a complete surprise in that he had been off of supplement oxygen for several days.

What is meant by supplemental oxygen is that room air contains 21% oxygen, 75% nitrogen and the remainder being other elemental gases. With CPAP, babies receive air pressure to assist in inflating the lungs, but this air pressure can include higher concentrations of oxygen up to 50% of the total air pressure. Fortunately, Jack Henry has only required supplemental oxygen in the 20s and 30s percent-wise since he was born. In fact, he had been on room air equivalent (21% oxygen) for several days including his ability to wiggle out from underneath the CPAP or to push it off of his face altogether several times for extended periods (i.e. half hour or so).

Our expectation had been for him to remain on CPAP for another couple of days and then move to a nasal cannula for a period of time as the nasal cannula provides supplemental oxygen with lower air pressure.

We are very excited by this new development, but we are also very nervous that he doesn't have any As & Bs (apnea and bradys) as this could necessitate the doctors to adjust course back to the CPAP or nasal cannula.

Since Jack Henry had started to experience some apneic episodes last week, the doctors had started him on caffeine treatment to keep his brain engaged in the act of breathing and beating his heart. More on the use of caffeine in a future post as I'm tired and ready for either bed or some caffeine myself.

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In case you are wondering why I'm linking caffeine to the Fair Haven Coffee website, this is the coffee venture that we've been working on for awhile. As the website is not live yet, please stay tuned as this will be the spot to get fair trade, organic coffee roasted here in Houston from high grade beans from around the world.

Not only will you get the freshest coffee and the highest quality beans, you will get this coffee within days of roasting with the assurance that you have bought coffee at a reasonable price that was cultivated by workers in safe (organic, not pestilent) conditions while being paid a fair, living daily wage. If you are interested in learning more, send an email to info[at]fairhavencoffee[dot]com. (Please substitute the (at) with the @ symbol and likewise for the (dot) with the . symbol as this is the only way to keep the spammers away.

More info to come!