What Rules?

Well, clearly Elli once again did not read the book on surgery on ECMO. Elli does not follow the rules but in a good way. She was incredibly stable through the entire night and still is doing well this morning. Elli has had minimal bleeding out of her JP drains and her vital signs are continuing to amaze us. We were worried that with all the fluid shifts from surgery that she would start to look really swollen, especially in her head, but so far not too much difference from before the surgery so that is a pleasant surprise. This morning they turned down the ECMO flow to 360, they had turned it up to 420 during the surgery to ensure that she would be as stable as possible. They also changed some of the vent settings this morning, but not exactly sure which ones. We missed rounds this morning because we slept in a little bit since Elli is doing so amazing and since we stayed at her bedside until after 2 am! We are now waiting for Dr. P to come around to visit with us and let us know any changes and what the overall game plan is going to be. As far as the surgical team goes, they said that they won't try to reduce her silo (putting her intestines back in her belly a little at a time) until she has been weaned off ECMO.

Brian and I are so blown away by how well Elli is doing, we were prepared for a long, tough night, but Elli proved us wrong. We actually had a couple of tears of joy this morning when we heard how amazing she had done throughout the night and this morning, it is still a long bumpy road, but Elli is doing exactly what she needs to do. She is resting up now, but a little bit responsive. Dr. T had the nurses turn her Morphine up to 60 last night as a precautionary measure to ensure that she would be nice and quiet through the night and not be kicking around. So as of now we are still playing the waiting game. Will post later any new news or updates.