Teresa just texted. The roller coaster continues... Averi's blood pressure has dropped again, and the pulses in her extremities were weak, so she is back on the dopamine and they are pushing fluids. The doctors told them that this might happen immediately following the connection of the dialysis, but of course Averi didn't read the play book, and she decided that a few hours later was better!

Just before her BP dropped, they had reached the "fluid negative" goal. So the dialysis was working, but for some reason Averi isn't tolerating it.

Now they are looking at the ECMO machine itself. (Both of her nurses, the doctor, and the ECMO perfusionist have been in the room trying to see if the ECMO machine itself is causing the flow problem.)

Teresa is concerned and would ask people to pray that Averi is not in pain. She said that Averi has had an eye open this entire time. Also, WISDOM for the doctors and all involved in making decisions. Thanks, everyone!

Dialysis is in place...

This update is a couple of hours old, but I thought I'd go ahead and report it anyway. (Sorry! I was away from the computer)

They have the dialysis set to remove 20mL fluid/hr. When I last heard from Teresa, it was working well, and they even took her off of lasix (the diuretic). The doctor assured them that Averi's kidneys are FINE, and that she would only need this for a couple of days to take the stress off of her kidneys. All of the excess fluid is making it difficult for the lungs to expand. The hope is that once all that puffiness is gone, the lungs will have more room!

What I found interesting, as I was trying to figure out how this contraption worked, is that it is actually (somehow) removing urine from her blood. I was amazed to learn that. I guess it makes sense, since that is the job of the kidneys!

Keep praying!

I will leave you with pictures of her new technology...

This is the new dialysis machine that they basically add on to the ECMO circuit.
And THIS is Averi's "stuff." Believe it or not, all of that equipment is for her! The lightened area in the middle is Averi's bed.

Thursday morning (17 days old-Day 6 on ECMO)

I just got a text from Teresa indicating that they are worried that there is bleeding in the liver. I don't know the details as to why they suspect this. They are adding a hemofilter to the ECMO machine. Teresa hasn't talked to the doctor yet... just the nurse. Teresa said she's scared. :(

A hemofilter is a type of dialysis that helps to give the kidneys rest. (which will also help get rid of fluid.) The bleeding in the liver is a hematoma from surgery. It can't resolve itself until after ECMO is removed. They haven't changed anything in the vent settings because they want to let dialysis do its thing first.