Echo and ECMO

Owen and I slept really well last night. We gave him a little Ativan to help him rest because he was struggling to get to sleep and comfortable.  We got a solid stretch of sleep from midnight to six in the morning.  This morning I got up and showered .. yay for a private shower in our room.  This morning rounds were full of information and we are moving in the right direction. 

Before morning rounds, each doctor stops in and assesses Owen while we chat.  They are all so impressed with how well he is doing!!  Our favorite echo tech performed his Echo and there were about 10 doctors bedside to watch... you could hear a pin drop it was so silent in here. 

His echo showed some slight improvement, but it's hard to tell with the ECMO machine offering so much support because it decompresses the ventricles of the heart.  When they lowered his ECMO support settings, his heart function showed improvement and I heard many sighs of relief.  I heard a lot of positive reactions and things are looking much better.  Slowly during the day we have lowered his ECMO support settings and oxygen levels allowing his heart to work a little more. 

We are turning his ventilator (breathing tube) settings down to pulse today so that he will be doing a little more breath support on his own.  We also started him on feeds very slowly via Gtube (5ccs an hour) to get his gut moving again.    We are turning down his Fentanyl drip a little as well, adding his Bactrum and Prograf back into the mix of medications.

I am doing everything I can to keep his room bright and happy!  I don't want him to feel sad, depressed or anxious at all, so I am keeping him busy.  We read lots of books, he watched a movie on his ipad, and I read him all the letters from his classmates again.  He is getting frustrated with the breathing tube and that we cannot hear him when he speaks.  We are doing our best to read his lips and help him when he needs it. 

Tomorrow will be another big day.  We are planning on doing another Echo in the morning and we are going to trial off of ECMO.  They can't get a realistic pictures of how his heart is going to perform until we clamp off those lines.  So tomorrow we will clamp off his ECMO support while watching his function via Echo and see what happens.  We have to keep him intubated so we can increase his oxygen support if necessary during the trial.  Keep praying.  Baby steps.