nasal cannula O2

August 1, 2004

Hi All,

We've had wear her O2 at night for the past few nights, and

it seems to make a difference. She hasn't needed to sleep in her

chair and she hasn't had headaches in the morning. The big problem

is this: we've previously put the O2 on if was symptomatic,

and she's been too sick to take it off or play with it. Now that

we're using it before she gets too bad, she takes it off every chance

she gets. slept through the night but I was up 10 times to

check her or put the silly thing back on. OK Darla, what's the trick

to keeping a nasal cannula on a toddler? Should I tape it until she

gets used to it? She has lots of other tubes that she leaves alone,

and she mostly keeps her glasses on but needs to be watched.

A little background for the O2- failed her sleep study

several months ago and we brought home O2. She's needed it with

illness for her whole life, but never had it at home. We only used

it after seizures and for bad autonomic crises since we've had it. I

didn't want to continuously monitor her sats because I don't want

another number to keep track of. She's very fair skinned and it's

easy to see if she needs O2, plus her perfusion isn't that hot with

her autonomic problems, so we get false low readings. We can't use a

lot of oxygen because she hypoventilates and runs high end tidal

CO2. The pulmonologist left it up to me to decide if she's

symptomatic and whether or not the O2 helps right now.

Thanks!

Heidi, 's Mom

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