No "Trial Off" today, still on ECMO

Hi All,

The doctors met this morning and decided that since the ECMO circuit is doing well, (the fibers haven't changed to clots) they would give him a little more time.  They also gave him some Surfactant which looks a little like milk.  We talked about that some last night so I won't go into much detail except to say it is suppose to help open airways because it acts as a sort of lubrication for the lungs.

At any case they got it to him around noon, and when we saw him at 3 there wan't much change.  His tidal volume was still around 3.  Later we came by and something had happened because he was up to 6 or 7 in tidal volume.  So everyone was pretty thrilled and he will have tonight to rest up.

In the morning they are going to trial him off of ECMO which I explained in some previous post.  So not much to report except that he is pretty awake now and adorable.  Its actually a little difficult to not mess with him.  He has 2 stuffed animals we have named Acidosis and ECMO.  The nurses tell us that small stuffed animals are donated and sometimes they just pop up with the kids.  They also tell us they make great positioning aids, holding up breathing tubes, IV, cathoders, whatever.  Its pretty hard to keep it all organized on the bed and Lucas's little buddies are there to help.  If you do donate some stuffed animals, give them beanie babies.  The nurses say those are the best.

So here is a great pictures of him that Jess took!

On a funny side note, that is a feeding tube going into his nose.  His sister told me that's how "they get the boogies out".

And here is a video!

One other bit of new is that the test for the placenta came back. They found signs of infection near the cord on the placenta.  They still can't isolate what it was but, this makes us feel better.  It wasn't genetic, and it wasn't viral.  So they will probably never get a definitive answer as to what it could have been but, I guess before the Strep B test they got a lot of kids in the ICU on ECMO.  So this has that same feel to it.  It is entirely possible that the Mom tested negative but, really was positive.  Or it could be something else but, it does prevent us from telling ourselves that it was our fault somehow which is just fine by me.

That's generally it for now.  More later.