Last week we were very concerned that Gwendolyn was coming down with a cold. We started a pretty aggressive antibiotic (Augmentin) and rested her on bi-pap almost 24/7 for several days. We're not getting any more sticky secretions and most importantly she seems to be back to herself again. Knock-on-wood, we think we kicked the cold.
Over the last several days Gwendolyn has been literally exploding with watery secretions at times throughout the day. Most likely the result of teething, it's to the point where it is unmanageable for her and for us with suctioning and most importantly it is interfering with her ability to rest soundly or relax. We spoke with Dr. Yuan's staff yesterday and decided to start her on a drug called Atrovent (administered via nebulizer) that should help dry up her secretions. As with all drugs, there are risks and to date we have held off on any secretion management drugs as her secretions have always been manageable for all of us and we didn't feel that the risks outweighed the benefits. In general, we're very careful with giving Gwendolyn anything new as we have found that she is extremely sensitive to any change in her routine, but we felt that she needed the help at this point. So far, the jury is out on Atrovent's effectiveness, but we've only given it once. We'll see.
Another change that we've noticed over the last several days is that at night while sleeping and during the day sometimes while napping Gwendolyn's oxygen saturation has consistently dropped to the mid 90%'s and has been dropping intermittently to the low 90%'s — her oxygen saturation is normally in the high 90%'s. On Wednesday, as a result of this change, we decided to give her a small amount of oxygen at night, but we've backed off of the oxygen for now as she isn't showing any signs of distress associated with the change in oxygen saturation. It could be related to the teething, increased secretions, etc. which the Atrovent may help with.