She Wants to Impress Uncle Aaron...

Uncle Aaron will be impressed with how young our little one is as she begins forming a relationship with Physics. She's currently taking a hands on course in Brownian Motion.

Uncle Hiram, Uncle Nick, Uncle Soren, Uncle Tracy and Aunt Katie will also be impressed. CA is rockin' things Star Wars style.

(I just realized how nerdy our entire family is.) Let me explain.

Yesterday, Charlotte Amalie was switched to a different kind of ventilator-- called a High Frequency Oscillator.

St. Joseph Mercy Health System in Michigan explains the Oscillator like this :

When a conventional ventilator fails to provide an adequate amount of breathing support or when we become concerned that the conventional ventilator may be causing additional harm to the lungs we may change to a special type of ventilator called a high frequency oscillator. This type of ventilator also requires that a tube be placed in the infant’s windpipe. The oscillator ventilator provides constant pressure to the baby’s lungs that keeps them inflated with air. It then vibrates very rapidly which can often be seen by watching the infant’s chest wiggle.

Here's the beast itself:

She's totally got her own R2D2! Am I right, or am I right? This thing has 1977 written allll over it.
Actually, I think George Lucas might have invented it.

This Oscillator might be totally old school, but so far, she seems to be pretty happy on it.

Waving hello. Measuring tape for reference.

CA has been relying more and more on the ventilator and the doctors and nurses had to keep increasing her settings on the standard vent. Yesterday afternoon, they decided to try the Oscillator and see if it would give her a break. The Oscillator works through a whole bunch of boring physics, (thus the mention in Brownian Motion previously) but essentially, babies who are on it can stop breathing all together.

And it's OK for her to just go ahead and stop. Crazy, huh?

The high frequency vibrations oxygenate the lung tissue and the blood so she doesn't actually have to move her lungs back and forth. This will allow her to take a bit of a 'rest' and hopefully build up her reserve so she can get off these silly breathing machines all together.

That's the latest. Ciao.