Basekamp Laundry Mountain

Today my son spent hours off oxygen when he should have been on it. A nurse forgot. The nurse switched him from a portable tank back to the recently filled liquid tank and forgot to turn on the Liter flow.

I watched him have a higher than normal respiratory rate. I watched him play lying down. I watched him develop black circles under his eyes during dinner- yet I never second-guessed the nurse’s competence in following doctor’s orders.

I made the assumption that the nurse had turned the oxygen ON when his tubing was attached to the tank. I looked for reason’s beyond what would have been my first instinct had I been home alone and been responsible for providing him oxygen. Such a competent nurse made a simple mistake. And tonight my son pays. He struggles to maintain sats above the ordered minimum & requires oxygen to supplement his fatigued ability to breathe strongly enough. Again my son pays for the mistakes of others.

And I live the guilt.