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Evie has an echo cardiogram every day, which allows the doctors to view her heart's motion and pumping action in real time. Two days ago, their assessment of her heart function was "poor." Yesterday, their assessment was "moderate," and today, the assessment was NORMAL!
This is such fantastic news, but we are almost too scared to start celebrating. I learned the results of today's echo (which took place around 2pm while Grandma and Granpa Cordes were visiting) while I was spending the evening with Evie in the hospital. The nurses let me know what the results were, but we haven't spoken to any of her doctors about it yet, and what this means for her treatment.
I'm hopeful that two days in a row of "normal" heart function would mean she could come off of the ECMO machine. The bleeding in her lungs seems to have really slowed down, but we don't know for sure if the bleeding artery identified in her lung has fully clotted yet.
This is all great news, but she is no where near out of the woods yet, so please continue to pray for her! All of the love and support, emails and comments posted to the blog mean so much to our family and we are very grateful for it.
As mentioned yesterday, she is not receiving any Heparin directly, but her ECMO machine is using a Heparin-bonded circuit (meaning the drug is in the tubes). Unfortunately, this type of circuit needs to be switched out every 48 hours and blood clots tend to start forming in the tubes, which can impede its performance.
You can see the clotting in the two pictures below (click on them for a larger version, I've circled the clots with a white circle). The clots appear as white streaks within the tubes.
This is such fantastic news, but we are almost too scared to start celebrating. I learned the results of today's echo (which took place around 2pm while Grandma and Granpa Cordes were visiting) while I was spending the evening with Evie in the hospital. The nurses let me know what the results were, but we haven't spoken to any of her doctors about it yet, and what this means for her treatment.
I'm hopeful that two days in a row of "normal" heart function would mean she could come off of the ECMO machine. The bleeding in her lungs seems to have really slowed down, but we don't know for sure if the bleeding artery identified in her lung has fully clotted yet.
This is all great news, but she is no where near out of the woods yet, so please continue to pray for her! All of the love and support, emails and comments posted to the blog mean so much to our family and we are very grateful for it.
As mentioned yesterday, she is not receiving any Heparin directly, but her ECMO machine is using a Heparin-bonded circuit (meaning the drug is in the tubes). Unfortunately, this type of circuit needs to be switched out every 48 hours and blood clots tend to start forming in the tubes, which can impede its performance.
You can see the clotting in the two pictures below (click on them for a larger version, I've circled the clots with a white circle). The clots appear as white streaks within the tubes.
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Look near the bottom of the photo below, you can see the white streaking indicating a blood clot at the bottom of the tube.
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9 comments:
God is good! Evie is such a little fighter. From reading this blog for 16 months now (which seems impossible!), I know that Evie just does things in her own time. She will be off the machines in her time. All of you have so many prayers being lifted for Evie (and for all of you)and I hope you continue to find comfort in that.
Such good news! So glad all the prayers and love from your friends and family are helping!! She's such a brave and wonderful little girl, and she's on a great road to recovery!!
Praying that this is the turning point for Evie's recovery and you'll soon be holding her and exchanging kisses.
Francis, your explanations are so complete I feel involved in the process daily.
Peace to you all.
Judy Eipers
That is wonderful news! I am so glad to hear that she is making progress! We are praying for Evie everyday. Thank you so much for keeping us informed! God bless you little Evie! You have a wonderful family!
Jennifer Berg
My heart skipped a beat when I read the title of this blog! We are so thankful that Evie is progressing!! GO EVIE GIRL! Our prayers are still focused on you - Evie is on our church's prayer list - so many prayers from little ol' Lebanon, IL! And we have to agree: your grasp of Evie's condition and explanations have been incredible! Stay strong and thanks SO much for the updates!
We love you all,
Beth, Jimmy & Frankie
EXCELLENT!! Thank you Lord!!God is great!! God hears all prayers...and there are many going that way....Evie is a strong baby and she will be up and running around in no time. She's in good hands...and God bless the team of doctors and staff for doing such a wonderful job!!!
GO EVIE!!! GO EVIE!!! You can do it - we all love you and know how strong you are. We want you back home with your brother!! And Uncles David & Brad have big (but gentle) hugs for you. We love you so much!!
I love this post's title....good news IS good news. Evie even looks better in this picture. You go little girl! We'll keep praying for posts that say "good news" at the top. Love to all. C&C
progress, progress! great to hear it!
kelly julien felix pierre
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