CPAP Is a Success

Over all it was a decent night as far as hospital sleep goes. We tried putting Ainsley to sleep with the CPAP on but she wasn't falling asleep and "asked" if we could put it on after she fell asleep.

She was sleeping so well I left her to see how she did.  She slept peacefully with sats above 95% until she woke about 2 hours later, at midnight rather panicked and crying. She has difficulty breathing when she cries. So I think that surprised the nurse but wasn't a surprise to me. She worked through it though, used the bathroom and went back to bed. I was pretty sure that without the trach in her airway she would still have obstructive sleep apnea but wanted to see it myself since she appeared to be doing so well prior to the 12am wake up. What seems to happen is that she runs into trouble after a few hours when she hits REM sleep. We put the CPAP mask on before she went to sleep this time to avoid the same thing happening. 

She wanted to be on her back even though she usually sleeps on her side. She didn't seem comfortable and stayed awake for a bit. Then I put her on her side and climbed into bed with her. She fell asleep quickly and slept okay except for the normal hospital disturbances like taking vitals. 

6am still sleeping with the CPAP on. She woke about 8am with a bit of a pressure mark across her nose. We are working on getting her a new mask to prevent skin break down.

She's had breakfast and is watching a movie waiting for discharge. We will be on our way home, trach-free in the next hour. With any luck this will be permanent. Time will tell.