8 Days Old

Jordan is showing his personality again today by flexing his muscles a bit.  He continues to fight - even on ECMO!  The ECMO circuit is providing life support for baby Jordan - he has all the oxygen he needs.  Today, however, he has continued to try and breath on his own!  The staff continues to be baffled by his drive/toughness.

Everyone was trying to figure out the best way to get Jordan to relax.  After several different experiments, Jordan seems to have won the battle and has gotten his way.  They may continue to let him make these motions as they try to find the "right" level of sedation.  No matter what they've tried, he is determined to do some of the work on his own.  They don't want to sedate him too much because the motion is good exercise for his muscles and helps relieve some of the extra fluids he's gained.  All of his vitals look very good today.

We were fortunate enough to have the whole process, including ECMO, explained to us in more detail today.  At this point, they are trying to let his lungs and heart relax so that the pulmonary vessels can rest and open up.  They believe Jordan has enough lung volume based on his first few days of life on the ventilator.  However, his pulmonary vessels are easily constricted and don't allow for an efficient exchange of oxygen.  That is his biggest threat at this point.  ECMO is allowing those vessels time to rest and heal to give this another shot.  Over time, ECMO should allow his lungs to open up as well.

From the x-rays and tweaks to the ECMO machine, they can determine when is the opportune time to take him off of ECMO and try the ventilator again.  Once stable, they can do the repair.  Again, the repair is essential for long-term growth of the lungs and organ function.  But, in the short-term, the critical factor for Jordan is the pulmonary hypertension.  The difference before ECMO is that the baby has too many new things the body is trying adjust to.  His heart just got too tired.

Overall, this was another good day for Jordan.  He has responded to ECMO extremely well.  As you can see below, he has shed much of the extra fluid he gained from ECMO.  He is peeing well, which is a great sign and makes for good laughs for the nurses (he got one of them today).  You can also see in the picture that he is positioned much the same way he was in the womb.  His fists are up and he likes to put his left hand up to his mouth.

Jordan - 8 days old