4-6 hours off the vent!

It's been a frustrating AND exciting week. I'll skip right to the good stuff:

Mom is doing very well and making tremendous progress in her weaning. She was off the vent for 2 hours yesterday without any problems or stress. Today she did at least two, but I haven't gotten an update to confirm exactly how long. Her oxygen levels and CO2 levels were perfect and they even did speech therapy with the voice valve while she was breathing on her own.

PT is also going well, but I don't have many details. I know she's been up in her chair everyday for and hour or two at a time.

We've been trying to figure out why Pac Spec hasn't been aggressive with her weaning over the past few weeks, since Mom seems so strong and well. HAS (our advocates) have really helped us communicate with the facility. After our queries, they suddenly interpreted the doctor's notes as needing supervision while she is off the vent. They confessed that they were too short staffed to follow through with the weaning if they had to supervise her the whole duration, which is why she was only getting 15 minutes at a time. Obviously this is completely unjust and negligent.

We offered to help the staff by being present while Mom was off the vent. Somehow, over the weekend, that got interpreted by the staff as "no weaning unless family is present." Therefore, Mom was not weaned at all for a few days. Of course, Dad and I were not contacted about this, nor was any effort made to set up a schedule with us. Actually, on Sunday she was barely visited by an RT at all.

While we were there on Sunday discussing the situation, the RT told us that a few weeks ago Mom was consistently off the vent for 4 - 6 hours at a time! This was the first we had heard this great news and fueled my anger about the lack of communication at this facility. They cut back on the weaning during her bout with nausea a few weeks ago and seemed to never get back on track. The RT couldn't tell me what changed and I had to tell him about the nausea (which fueled my anger about the communication WITHIN the facility). He thought that if he had the support and collaboration with PT and OT, he could get Mom off the vent in 10 days. I recognize that that's mostly his ego/swagger talking, but it definitely shows how strong Mom is and how soon she could be breathing on her own.

Today, they have completely changed their tune and are incredibly friendly, helpful, and apologetic to us and our advocate, Jason. Obviously there was some sort of internal meeting where Mom's case was discussed. The supervisor of the RT team is back from vacation and picking up the pieces of the damage her team has caused with their honestly. They are promising to deliver on all the things we've been asking for for months (care plan, weekly calls/updates of milestones, etc).

We definitely have enough ammo to petition insurance to have Mom moved back to Vibra immediately. We will certainly be filing formal complaints with the state of WA about Pac Spec. Right now, we just want them to do their job and get Mom stronger.