Three weeks old... (DAY 10 on ECMO)

I thought I typed some of this out earlier, but I guess I didn't! So this will be a longer post!

Teresa reported earlier today that Averi was doing better today--a lot better--with the change of the ECMO machine. The cardiologist came in and also said she is doing better. The attitude of everyone is more upbeat, but they continue to take things one day at a time. Her right lung is more open. The ventilator settings have been increased. They are not taking her off of ECMO today as previously discussed in the "72 hour plan."

Averi has continued to improve today on the new ECMO circuit. Her lungs have expanded more, the ECMO pump has now been weaned to 250, and the ventilator has been turned up. They are now talking about ECMO bridging (some hospitals use the term cross clamping.) in the next few days. They clamp the tubes so that the machine stops doing the work for her, leaving Averi and the ventilator for a few minutes. They see how she does, and usually clamp and unclamp several times. The blood gasses will tell them how she is doing with just the ventilator. Being at 250 is really good! Again, my only frame of reference is our daughter, who went from 270-140 on the day they did her cross-clamp test. If Averi does well with this, then they will take her off of ECMO soon after that.

Another thing is that she is now finally fluid negative! This will help give her lungs more room to expand.

In all of this, they are learning (again) that Averi does not like change, and that making minute changes and taking longer to do something is much better than rushing her and eventually starting all over again.

Pray for a quiet, peaceful night for Averi. Pray for their other kids... Alex, Kylie, and Ian. This has been really rough on them, as you can imagine!