Something New

When Mom and Dad visited Archer this morning a new plan was put in place to help his up and down breathing. The nurse practitioner and doctor advised that adding another tube in his stomach, the same size as his feeding tube, could be beneficial. This new tube has sensors on it that reach down to his diaphragm. The sensors detect when the brain sends a signal to the diaphragm to take a breath. The ventilator can use the signal to either help give Archer breaths or to let Archer breathe on his own. Archer is now in the driver's seat when it comes to taking breaths. The ventilator will no longer force feed him breaths when he doesn't need them. Now, whenever Archer sighs, yawns, or has the hiccups, the ventilator knows not to keep sending breaths his way. The breaths per minute settings is no longer a huge factor because Archer determines how many breaths per minute he will take. Though he is not allowed to fall below 30 breaths per minute, nor go 6 seconds without taking a breath. If either of these happen, the ventilator will kick in a breath for him. This new breathing system can help Archer transition to a nasal-type respiratory system. He will learn to breathe more on his own, and he can use this same system when he does take his oxygen through the nasal cavity.
Archer did very well soon after he received this new technology. In a short amount of time his required oxygen went from 52% to 38%! This new technology also helps compensate for the leak around the end of his tube.
Archer's feedings were also increased from 48ml to 57.6ml, continuously, every 24 hours. He has recently lost a little bit of weight. This could be related to the medicine he was taking to help drain his fluids.  Dad also changed a couple of heavy and dirty diapers. His weight is floating around 2 pounds.