Another Day

Monday’s x-ray is much improved. She had another bath and the doctor changed the dressing on her ECMO cannulas. They have added some new sedation, as her tolerance continues to go up. She slept well, especially after we sheltered her eyes from the bright lights. Today, she was allowed to wake up more and cough when she was suctioned. That way, they were able to get more mucus out of her lungs for her. She looks very good, and we hope to have a very uneventful overnight.

One of the crazy things about hospitals is that the doctors change every week, so the entire team that is taking care of her in the PICU is different than it was yesterday. We have just had one day with them so far, so we'll have to see if they have different goals for her. Thank goodness that the respiratory therapists who run the ECMO machine and the nurses don't change so dramatically - although they all have very different ways of doing things. It's hard to know what is best and if it really matters when they do things differently. We are just hoping for continued movement in the right direction overall, and we hope that all these things are working.

On the home front, my parents are still there taking care of Emma, and Andrew is going to try to spend some time at work tomorrow. Unfortunately, Emma has come down with a bit of a cold/flu, so I haven't seen her since Saturday. But, she seems to be feeling better and told me that she was going to school tomorrow.

Just one last thing -- the ECMO machine uses a lot of blood products, so we are asking everyone who can to give blood back into the system. You don't have to do it here, just go anywhere and give a little back into the blood bank if you can. Thank you!