Each trail off CPAP was incredibly nerve-racking on Kevin and me. Oaklee had trialled off and was successful in early July, but found herself back on just a few days later. We learned from this experience not to get overly excited when the word “trial” came up. On August 2, for example, the nurse removed her CPAP in the morning and when I made my way up to the hospital in the afternoon, I was afraid to hold her as her oxygen saturations tended to change when she was being held. Realistically, we could not call her successful off the CPAP if we could not hold her, so I knew I had to hold her in order to know if she was truly capable of breathing on her own or not. She was not that time.
But this time, we ventured down a different route. Oaklee seemed so capable, yet she wasn’t allowing herself to succeed without assistance. Therefore, our nurse suggested to the doctor we try a simple nasal cannula, giving her just a small amount of additional oxygen to rely on if need be.