Big News Today

Well like the headline says, there is big news to report today on Joseph's progress. In an effort to stop the drainage from his chest tube the decision was made to start to ween him off of the ECMO pump today. The reason behind this decision was that until he is off of the heparin the bleeding won't stop and they really wanted to slow down the amount of blood products he is getting to ease the stress on the parts of his body that filter blood. In fact this is one of the reasons he lost his spleen (man I still love that word! Spleen spleen spleen spleen!) when Dr. Statter went in to remove it, it was FIVE times as large as it had been which is why the cracks had refused to stop bleeding, they were being stretched out. Anyway, enough about the spleen (spleen spleen spleen spleen, bwahahahahaha). So at around 11:00ish am they started the ween (come to think of it ween is pretty funny too, ween ween ween ween!). At 4:20 this afternoon (yesterday at this point but I am still going to call it today because I am still up, so I guess you'll just have to figure that out on your own, except I just explained myself, well you know.) they clamped Joseph off and started to make determinations about what to do next, how was the heart, the lungs, what to have for dinner, what movie should we go see this weekend, hey what are your plans for new years, yada yada yada.

One of the things they were really concerned with was his PDA (Patent Ductus Arteriosus) which is the little valve in your heart that allows your blood flow to bypass the lungs while still in utero. For most people when they are born this valve closes and blood goes straight to the lungs, in fact it is the reason they used to slap babies on the butt, to close that valve. Joseph's PDA is still open, which is a good thing, they want it open, in fact they were willing to operate to open it if needed. Well they did an ultrasound to check that it was still open and are giving him extra medicine that will keep it open until they want to close it. It is still a possibility that they will operate to insert a shunt that will make it even larger if need be. So after determining that it was open and that his heart could handle the load, and that his lungs were doing an OK job to oxygenate his blood, they decided to remove the pump! So at 7:00 pm they cut the pump away from Joseph. The tubes will stay in his neck for the next 24 hours just in case they need to put him back on, but the pump is gone and he is doing it on his own. He is however still on a ventilator.

Speaking of the "vent" when I went back this evening at 11:30 to say goodnight to the little guy, his nurses told me something very cool. His blood gases have been so good, they are starting to ween (ween ween ween ween) him off of the ventilator! All of this is very good for Joseph, he is doing considerably better today than yesterday.

I would like to thank everyone who has been praying for Joseph, and the rest of us. It means a great deal to me that people, even those who have never met us care this much about us. So thank you for your prayers, and keep 'em coming, we aren't out of the woods yet but the trail is much clearer.

Steve