Poor little deviated septum...

Late May, 2001 7 weeks in hospital

We had learned early on that Jairus' breathing tube seemed to fit better down his right nostril than his left. After a number of weeks with the NPT, I was starting to become concerned that always putting it down the right would make it irritated and perhaps even more enlarged.

We had his ENT come and take a closer look in Jairus' nose to see what the problem might be. She told us that his septum was deviated and his left nostril generally...weird. Probably not the word she used, but she said that it was just oddly formed. Still, she said it was worth trying the NPT in that side to give the other side a break. So we did.

It was pretty much a disaster from the start. Jairus was frantic from the moment they tried to place the tube and the RT found it extremely difficult. An hour later, he was still crying. I called the ENT and she said to give him some Tylenol and persevere. He seemed to calm and we left for the night. The next morning he was running a temperature and was still upset. I felt awful and immediately called for an RT to approve my taking the NPT out. It took an hour for one to come and I was severely tempted to pull it out myself. Finally he came and within minutes, Jairus was calm and settled. We left the NPT out for five hours that day and he did very well.

He still had his ups and downs however. A few days later, he only lasted an hour and a half and desatted twice. Tubes back in for that day.

Still Jairus' various specialists were starting to talk about sending him home for good....