A new day!

Well, today has certainly started off more encouraging than yesterday. Recent reports are that his lungs sound much better than yesterday and his Chest X-ray shows signs of improvement. So we praise the Lord for that. They are saying today that they may attempt to wean him off the ECMO machine within the next day or two. This is contingent on getting an arterial line stuck in order to draw blood and measure the oxygen in his blood after it has passed through the lungs. Right now they do not have an arterial line to draw from so they are not sure how well oxygen is really passing from his lungs to the blood stream. This arterial line would allow them to better see the progress he is making and whether proceeding with the weaning process would be advisable at this time. He is having issues keeping both lungs open; when they lay him on one side that lung will collapse and when they lay him on the other side the other lung will collapse, but this is not a big surprise as they are not being very aggressive with the respirator. The first part of the weaning process would be to get his lungs fully inflated and ensure that he can keep them up. Right now the ECMO pump is doing most of the work for him so his lungs are resting more than working.

Today’s agenda:
1. Blood cultures – they drew blood this morning so that they could culture it and see if they could identify any new bacteria they may have missed or that may have recently been introduced. He is still fighting an infection which they haven’t been able to fully identify. One thing they are looking at is a Staff infection which would require a new antibiotic be delivered. Please pray that they find the cause of the infection quickly.
2. Replace the Oxygenator (artificial lung) – this was done early this afternoon. This being day 10 of ECMO, the oxygenator was showing signs of needing to be replaced so they proactively made the replacement. Since doing this his heart rate has remained rather high. They are giving him more blood to increase the volume and hopefully drop his heart rate. Please pray that his rate stabilizes and returns to normal.
3. Attempt to stick an arterial line again – this will happen this afternoon. Please pray that there would not be any bleeding issues.
4. Increase Respirator rate – this will be done to help inflate the lungs in preparation for the weaning process (the slow steady progression of reducing the ECMO pump flow and having his heart and lungs do more of the work). This will be contingent on whether they are able to obtain an arterial line to draw blood from.

Thank you all for your continual prayers and for the outpouring of love that you have shown us! God is good and loves His children. We have been blessed yet another day. Please pray today for the items above and that the outlook would remain favorable to begin the weaning process.