Sunday Rounds

Eddie handled the ECMO trial last night very well . . . good temperature and good kidney function, but his blood pressure did spike a bit more than expected. Regardless, when we met with Dr. Mazor early this morning and then Dr. Law during regular rounds, we all thought it best to trial again tomorrow morning once the surgeons and transplant team are back in the hospital. They conference at 7am and then we'd look at clamping the ECMO flow around 9am if Eddie continues to do well enough.

As a result, today is becoming a day of rest, appropriately enough. We had a visit from two members of the Seattle 3rd Ward who were kind enough to administer the Sacrament (similar to receiving the Eucharist or Communion) as well as help me give Eddie another blessing. Sarah left this morning to attend church meetings in Redmond and spend some time with the kids.

Key decisions now if Eddie does well on reduced flows are:

1. Do we take Eddie off ECMO tomorrow?
2. If yes, do we still put him on a VAD (Berlin Heart) or leave him on his own?
3. If no, how long do we wait before putting him on VAD?
4. If we move to a VAD, do we make changes to the donor criteria to make the process more selective again? In other words, since the VAD is viable over a longer term, do we make a play for a higher-quality heart or do we still believe time is of the essence and take whatever we can get?

We may have answers to #1-3 tomorrow, but #4 might take a little bit longer.