Bobby Fought the Doctors and...

Bobby won! The docs put Bobby on a cpap machine yesterday to help keep his airways open. The contraption is a giant tube (sort of looks like a vacuum hose) that extends from the top of the forehead down his nose to where its inserted into his nostrils with prongs. He has a head covering around the back and top of his head to hold the hose in place, and straps that go from his ears to his nose to keep the prongs in place. Sound hideous? You betcha. Here's a photo from July with a much weaker Bobby on the cpap.



Bobby spent the night a) being sedated b) thrashing wildly to get the cpap out of his nose until he was sedated again. His nurse Cindy was amazingly patient with him, often needing 45 minutes or so to get the mask back in place. When I say thrashing, think of a greased feral cat trying to escape from a snuggle. And Bobby did all this with restraints on 1 leg and both arms.

I think the fight he put up means he's feeling much better. The doctors agreed this morning that he is feeling too healthy to expect him to tolerate this monstrosity. So now we have a nice oxygen cannula that Bobby doesn't mind a bit. So far his oxygen levels are a bit low - in the low 70s - but we won't have much to base a conclusion on until the sedation wears off and he's had a few hours to adjust to life without pressure being pumped into his lungs.

It seems that Bobby has learned one of the basic rules of Grunsted living - if at first you don't get your way, thrash around wildly until the people around you are so tired that they give in. It works in corporate America and it works in oxygen support discussions. I can certainly wait to see how it works during bed time negotiations.