Out of surgery

Riley just came up from the operating room--man, it has been a long day. We are waiting for the nurses to get him settled in his room so that we can go see him. Dr. Hanley said that everything went well and after explaining what to expect, I was surprised to learn that he will have four catheters instead of two like last time. There will be two in the left femoral artery, one in the right femoral artery, and one in the jugular.

Basically, ECMO is an external heart-lung bypass machine. All of Riley's blood will leave his body, go to the machine to be oxygenated, and then pumped back into his body. From a scientific standpoint, it's fascinating to actually see blue blood and red blood so vividly. From a parental standpoint, it leans more toward the freaky end of the spectrum. But then again, in all honesty, this whole experience falls on the freaky end of the spectrum.

A doctor from a renal team came to explain that they are attaching the dialysis machine to the EMCO circuit and will slowly remove toxins and fluid. We should see improvements in his swelling in the next 24 to 48 hours.

The next three to five days should just be peaceful (fingers crossed) while his body attempts to heal. With less erratic blood pressures and fluid overloading and irregular heart rate, etc., perhaps it will be a little more peaceful for family as well. We now just need to put all of our energry into believing that it will work and his organs will begin to recover.