One Step Back...

...and two steps forward. That seems to be the way to sum up Saturday. The day started rough for Emily with the discovery that fluid was building up in her lungs. A lot of fluid. So much that they switch the oxygen supply to the ECMO machine. To add to this problem her heart was still not doing much at all, which is why the fluid was building up. Kathy and my brother, Kent, were the only ones at the hospital this morning and Kathy had to talk to the doctors by herself. This did not go very well.

Kathy's plan was to be home by 10am to spend time with the girls and get ready for the birthday party. She could not get home until about 1pm, and she was not in a good state of mind. Things at this time were looking very bleak. I came back to the hospital so as to deal with anything that needed to be taken care of and to monitor Emily's condition. My mood was black on the way to the hospital.

I arrived at about 2pm and went straight back to see Emily. She was about the same and they reported that they had been making progress on the fluid in the lungs. Her arterial pulse line (which has been nearly flat since she arrived here) had a very small wave to it, but nothing to be excited about. A couple of hours later I went back to visit her and the arterial line on the monitor was about twice the size from 2 hours earlier. They also reported more progress on the fluid control. By 6pm the arterial line was really starting to look like something. It was not a pulse but her heart was definitely getting more active.

When I went in to see her at 8pm I was stunned, she had what looked to me like a pulse. It was not real strong and it was a little sloppy but it was a pulse. Her blood pressure was also showing signs that her heart was starting to do some work. All through the day Emily was been taking breaths on her own, which is another huge positive. We have not had any official word on what all this means but it looks like the day is ending much better than it started.

More later...