CT results

Yesterday was a rough day. The low O2 sats had everybody very worried about Gabe and whether or not surgery was even an option anymore. Dr. Rouse felt that the venus canlus was a little shallow. They did a procedures to put it 3cm deeper. We asked if this would improve the o2 stats and he didn't think so. It was done to improve the flow back to the machine.

He had his CT scan this morning, which was quite a spectacle to watch. (See pics below).I think I counted about 8 people working together to get him down the elevator and in the scanner safely. As we were standing in the doorway of the scan room, watching, I looked up and Dr. Rouse was standing at my elbow. He is Gabriel's surgical member of the team. He has been absolutely amazing with us and with Gabe. On a side note, Thursday night he walked over to my room (which is quite a hike from Riley to IU) to let me know Gabe was not doing very well and personally wheeled me to his bedside and stayed around while we visited. Friday night, hours after the cannulaes had been placed and ECMO was underway, Josh went back to the NICU to see Gabe one more time before bed and Dr. Rouse was just sitting at his bedside, as if holding vigil. I can't say enough how fortunate we feel to be in such good hands.

Anyway, back to the CT results. Dr. Rouse came out as soon as the scan was complete to talk to us. The brain looks good, no real evidence of damage or seizure activity, just a little normal fluid. The hernia appears to be more one big hernia, as opposed to a double hernia. He used the term 'morgagnia's hernia', but I haven't checked spelling on that. The hernia is more to the front and stretches pretty much all the way across. There is diaphragm on the sides and in the back, he thinks. He is going to look at the films when they are printed and then go over them with us. Surgery is still an option (We think they were feeling more pessimistic about that yesterday). He actually has more lung tissue on the right than on the left (which was unexpected) but what he has is not well inflated b/c of the location of the liver. They are increasing the ventilator some to try to inflate the lungs and see if they can get better volumes. From what we understand so far, this will likely be the big indicator for surgery. On another positive, his O2 levels were back up around 100 today (yesterday they were in the 50s). They would still prefer levels around 200, but progress is progress!

So again, we wait! Wait to see if his O2 levels improve enough to start the weaning process again, and wait to see what the films show about what is left of his diaphragm and how much lung he has. Thank you again, and again for your posts, your well wishes and your prayers.