I know that many of you may have wondered if something happened and / or if we had made it home. Well the short answer is yes and no.
All was well as 12pm on Thursday per the last post but that changed fairly quickly. Prevailing theories state that Aaric either aspirated on some food or there was a small air bubble trapped in his heart that shifted, either way, the outcome was catastrophic and for 25 mins he was gone. I’m still not emotionally ready to lay out the events as they occured but basically the CICU staff was able to act quickly and place him on ECMO to compensate for his heart which refused to start working again (http://www.choa.org/Childrens-Hospital-Services/Critical-Care/ECMO-Center/Programs/Cardiac). ECMO (or the circuit as it is called) became the only thing keeping him alive.
After four days spent in what I can only describe as a hell filled with uncertainty, despair, and many many tears , Aaric’s heart made a comeback and decided to start working again.
He was removed from ECMO on Mother’s Day – which is the best gift I have, and will most likely ever receive. The end of his period on ECMO meant that we were near (but not quite at) post op day one. He was re-intubated and therefore back on the ventilator, had an additional chest drainage tube for fluid buildup in the chest cavity, battling partly collapsed lungs and burdened with a questionable heart. All in all a worse state then right after surgery and still a questionable prognosis.
Now at day 7 post op and day 3 post ECMO, Aaric is doing remarkably well – he is off the vent, his lungs are healing (although they do not look perfect quite yet), his chest tubes are gone, his heart beat is strong and steady, his blood pressure is under control, he has shed all of his IV meds, and he is feeding on breastmilk again (albeit through a NJ tube – a tube going through his nose and into his small intestine). The NJ tube is being used as a means to feed him until a swallow study can be conducted to ensure that he is not aspirating food (which, as stated above, could have been the cause of his coding originally) – basically, we are all playing it safe.
He will likely remain in the CICU for at least a couple more days, if not more. The doctors and nurses continue to be amazed at his progress as he was on the brink only 3 days earlier. We continue to hope and pray that all of the progress will continue and that we can take our little munchkin home soon.
We would like to thank all involved for the prayers, thoughts, hugs, tears, food, blood, sweat, log keeping, sitting and support that you provided – we could not have made it through without you.