Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Sit and wait

Today was another mostly stable day. Last night, they attempted to wean Charlie off of ECMO. He apparently did a very good job - he was able to be weaned down to less than half the amount of bypass that he had started on! However, close to change of shift they realized he had something else going on - the chest incision which had reopened had begun bleeding even more. They decided to go back up on bypass so that he wouldn't be stressed, and worked on fixing his bleeding. Dr. Sinha added more stitches to his wound, which appears to have slowed the bleeding down.

Of course, because of the bleeding we are back to the main game - fluid balance. They had to pump Charlie full of fluid and blood. Now he is puffy, and needs to be diuresed again. His Lasix is up; they are using the ECMO machine to help remove excess fluid as well. Once he is more fluid balanced, they will consider weaning him again. They also have to account for how much fluid he is losing through his chest incision as well as his chest tubes. It is a careful balancing act, which was difficult to begin with - and the tip too far into the negative is probably what caused us to land here in the first place.

So we continue to sit and wait. We visit our pumpkin daily and ask him to keep fighting. We promise him that we won't give up on him as long as he wants to fight, and remind him that we love him. We are still so grateful to all the friends and family that surround us with company, love and thoughts daily.

Hoping and praying for more stable, if not good news tomorrow.

Lots of love,
Josh and Mina

5 comments:

  1. I have spread the word to everybody I know who prays, we are all sending God your way. I hope you guys are hanging in there and please call if you need anything.

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  2. Praying like crazy for your sweet angel! Love you guys!

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  3. Praying for you guys and your little Charlie.

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  4. This is Laura's friend Amber. All my most heartfelt prayers for something I can barely imagine bearing. I have emailed four churches that I know and every person, of faith or otherwise, that I know.

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  5. Charlie is so brave. You all are ever on my mind & in my heart. Several times, I've been brought to tears just aching at the turn this journey has taken. Josh and Mina, you both are doing an incredible job through this...really. We are always here for you and always praying for your whole family.

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