Off ECMO

Lynnea was completely taken off from the ECMO machine this afternoon, and has been doing well ever since. Her heart is beating well on its own, and Dr. St. Louis is hopeful that this latest operation really helped improve things for her. Her chest is still open, but fortunately, she has a "real" bandage over it instead of just the tagaderm that looks an awful lot like Saran Wrap. Personally, I have a really hard time looking at her if she doesn't have a bandage on, and I would not have posted a picture with the tagaderm because it's pretty graphic. Dr. St. Louis is hoping to be able to close her chest up completely on Friday, as long as she is still doing well, and some of the swelling goes down. Since coming off from ECMO, her blood pressure has been pretty stable on its own, without a lot of help from medications. Everyone is quite pleased with how she is doing, and we are hopeful about her future.