Another New Machine...

So the other day, we were introduced to another new machine... It's a heart/lung machine aka "ECMO" (extracorporeal membrane oxygenation) that will help Maia's heart and lungs rest while getting her ready to have her chest closed, hopefully with better results this time! The doctor explained that this machine is usually used for patients in heart failure, but in Maia's case, they are mainly using it to rest her heart, which allows her to be off her heart meds, and will help her kidneys not have to work so hard to flush out all the fluids, all to help shrink her down in preparation to have her chest closed... well, it's working nicely. However, it's quite intimidating to look at! The "circuit" connects at the right side of her neck and uses 2 large plastic tubes that moves her blood to and from the machine. Today she looked tiny and Gordon and I wished they had a machine they could hook us up to so that we can shrink down too!! Of course, this was not without some complications... Maia seems to need attention about a couple of hours before we arrive, almost everyday! It's never anything too serious, but whenever we arrive to see her, we usually have to wait about an hour or so because some procedure needs to be done on her... or there's a bunch of nurses scrambling around her little room figuring out the correct numbers and levels for the machines, and there's just not enough space to visit since all her machines take up so much room! So today, 2 of her lines started leaking because she's been shrinking, the opening for her PIC line in her right thigh has come loose, since the hole doesn't necessarily shrink along with her body. This line in her thigh was being used for dialysis. Same issue with the lines in her neck that connect to the new heart/lung machine. So they decided to not use the line in her thigh altogether and since this new machine can also do dialysis, they will use the same circuit that goes in through her neck for dialysis also, which is good since it's one less machine.

The doctors have also decided to close her chest tonight... again. We're hoping and praying for better results this time! While in the operating room, they will also take her PIC line out of her thigh and allow it to heal up, and fix and clean up the leak at her neck. I called to check up on her tonight and her nurse said they just brought her back to her room about an hour ago and she's doing well. She won't wake up until tomorrow, so I'm getting excited about seeing her! Gordon's been working half days so he gets off work around 12:30pm and Marcus is out of school at 12:20pm... so we'll all head over to the hospital once they're both out.

I don't have any new pics this time, mainly because my phone broke! Booooo! I hate when this happens. I don't even know how it happened, but the other morning when my alarm sounded, I couldn't turn off the alarm! It was around 6:00am so I was barely awake and couldn't see anything, but I felt a thin crack on the screen. Later in the morning I looked at it more closely and noticed a crack that branched out into 3 more cracks... and nothing on the touch screen worked! So I went to Best Buy and talked to the Geek Squad... ended up getting a loaner phone since my phone was on back order. So I'm hoping sometime this week I'll get my phone cuz this loaner phone sucks! For now I guess I can use my regular digital camera, I just have to not be so lazy and upload the pics after I take them!... so we'll see how that goes! For now I just can't wait to see our lil munchkin! 

Thanks again to everyone for their thoughts and prayers! We can't thank you all enough... hoping after this chest closure Maia can move forward in her recovery! She's such a lil fighter and is so strong despite everything she's already been through... we can't wait until she's well enough to meet everyone!