What Would You Do?

jennbent

So DS came home on an apnea monitor.  It has rarely gone off since the first few weeks we were home, and even then it was just for Bradys during bottles - no apneas.  However, over the past 2 weeks or so the Brady alarm has started going off in the middle of the night when he's in a deep sleep.  At first, it was just every few days, now it goes off every night, multiple times a night.  It's set to alarm if his heart rate dips below 80.   After talking to his pedi/our pulmo nurse we've learned that it should be set lower (to 60 beats per minute) now that he's 3 months adjusted since all babies' heart rates naturally slow down as they get older.

For the past week, I've been calling the pulmo's nurse and asking her to send an order to the home health company to lower the heart rate.  First she wanted to see the results of the latest download, then she lost the results, then she forgot to send the order, etc, etc.  The ineptitude would be funny if I was so p*ssed off about it.  This has been going on for a week now.  Meantime the stupid thing is now going off 4 times a night and driving DH & I absolutely insane. 

So knowing that nothing will get done over Thanksgiving weekend, our choices are - take him off of it and risk something happening, for which I would never forgive myself...or wake up to that screeching alarm at least 4 times a night over the Thanksgiving weekend and just deal with it.  Even though I know DS is fine and won't have any apneas, I hate my choices.  What would you do?

jcsntms06

I think I would just keep him on the machine until they fix the machine. Is there any way you can turn down the volume?

Pips09

BostonKisses2:

I'd keep him on it and deal with the alarms when they happen.  I'd also call the pulmo's office and see if they can get the orders in today to get someone to your house, especially since it's her fault that she's losing everything.  If she continues to lose stuff, don't be afraid to speak up and complain about that.

This is what I would do, too.

jennbent

Pips09:

BostonKisses2:

I'd keep him on it and deal with the alarms when they happen.  I'd also call the pulmo's office and see if they can get the orders in today to get someone to your house, especially since it's her fault that she's losing everything.  If she continues to lose stuff, don't be afraid to speak up and complain about that.

This is what I would do, too.

I called this morning.  She was very grouchy with me due to the fact that I've called her twice a day for the past week to try to get this taken care of.  She claims the order has been sent, but the home health company says they need to speak with her for some reason before they can come out and she hasn't called them back - it's a total cluster.  I feel like I'm about to go postal over it.  I agree that I will complain when we are there in a couple of weeks for Synagis. 

Courtneyw04

Have you tried having LO sleep in an incline when he is sleeping and the machine is going off? We have three apnea monitors and some nights the machines will go off and as soon as we put the baby in a nap nanny the monitor does not beep anymore. Good luck, those machines are so annoying!! 

rslhmg

We had this issue about 2 months ago, right before DD came off her monitor, except hers was constantly alarming, to the point she couldn't sleep because of it. A sleepy baby that can't sleep because of an alarm is really frustrating! We were pretty fortunate that it only took 2 days to be fixed, but during that time dh and I alternated staying up with her so it could be off and all of us could get some sleep. Hopefully they get this fixed for you ASAP, I would have lost it if her Dr kept losing stuff and prolonging the problem. Like pp said, don't be afraid to speak up to the Dr.

jennbent

CurlingRocks:

I could have written this post last year!  And truth be told, nothing they did to correct the problem actually fixed it.  We just had to deal with the monitor false-alarming several times a night for about 6 months.  To us, it wasn't worth the risk of DS having a true episode, and even when the monitor came off for good, I still checked him multiple times a night for months afterward.  Can you get a nap in sometime during the day?  That always helped me, even if it was only 15 minutes.  GL!

 CR you're scaring me!  If we are still dealing with this in another 3 months - oh Lordy! I really will go crazy. 

And to the pp - no, unfortunately there's no way to turn down the volume.  It's set at "wake the dead" level.

I agree that we should keep him on it - just wanted to run it by everyone to make sure.  I guess, in the end, my post was more of a rant about the pulmonologist!!  I had no idea when we were discharged 3 months ago that we'd still be on this monitor and be having such problems!

jennbent

Courtneyw04:

Have you tried having LO sleep in an incline when he is sleeping and the machine is going off? We have three apnea monitors and some nights the machines will go off and as soon as we put the baby in a nap nanny the monitor does not beep anymore. Good luck, those machines are so annoying!! 

Yes, he does sleep on an incline to help with his reflux - actually he sleeps on a wedge pillow, but unfortunately it doesn't seem to make a difference with the false alarms.  I think the wedge actually makes the false alarms worse, but I'm not willing to have him throw up his whole bottle to test my theory.  lol