Ella had another uneventful night in the NICU. She did well with her steroids, but she hasn’t made the progress that the doctors were hoping for.

The tube that is inserted into her trachea is a smaller tube than was originally installed, and is small enought that a baby Ella’s size should have some room between the outside of the tube and her trachea that air could move freely. currently, there is no air escaping through this expected gap which tells us that there is swelling in that area which is sealing against the outside of the tube. The doctors were waiting to see (on the machines) and hear air passing through that gap as an indication that the steroids are working on the inflammation and she’s ready to be extubated. Because they haven’t seen this yet, they are going to try another more targeted steroid and give her another day to see how she progresses. If she makes progress in this time, they’ll reattempt the extubation.

On a very positive note, her lungs are even better today than they have been, and she’s been breathing non-enriched air (21% O2) while maintaining a 99-100% oxygen saturation rate. This means that her lungs are not an issue anymore, we just need to get the swelling down in her throat.