Just say no......to ECMO

On Wednesday afternoon, after Ayden had been stabilized and connected to the ECMO machine, we were told to expect him to be on it for at least 72 hours.  When he was taken off ECMO this morning, he had been on it for about 70 hours.  The kid continues to show all of us what he can do.

As always, Ayden still has a long way to go, despite today's developments.  His heart rate isn't yet what it needs to be, so he is being paced by an external pacemaker.  Due to all of the tubes that are still in him (chest tubes, breathing tube, etc.), he is still sedated.  Hopefully this is the main explanation for his lower heart rate and, once he has a little longer to recover and strengthen and comes off the sedation, his rate will be within range and the pacemaker will be unnecessary.  He also still needs a little help in keeping his blood pressure up.

He is peeing "like a rockstar" according to his nurse for today, Rebekah.  Yesterday's head ultrasound came back normal (still waiting on the the results of today's).  The ECHOs over the last three days have showed progression as to his heart squeezing and as to a valve that has been leaking (this leaking valve currently looks like it may be the main long term concern, if there is to be one).

Should Ayden continue to power through this episode without any major setbacks, something Allison and I discussed this morning (even before Ayden came off ECMO) would seriously gather merit, in my mind.  We talked about how maybe Wednesday was actually an intervention from God.  Maybe we were going down a very wrong path in trying to treat the SVTs with medication.  Maybe this episode was necessary to get us on the right path with the ablation.  Maybe Ayden will now start working his way back to where he was before and it'll be like this never happened.

Or maybe not.  I don't know.  One can hope, right?  If it turns out to be the case, I'll take it.  Gladly.