Getting better?

Saturday 23rd December

The ward called us in the early hours - I nearly had a heart attack! It turns out that the nurses think that there may be some clots in the ECMO circuit and they think that the circuit might need to be changed. The nurses and doctors have warned us about this briefly earlier but it has not yet been necessary to consider this (and Grace has already been on ECMO for 10 days now). The circuit is then changed and by 3am everything is stable. Apparently Grace coped really well with not being supported by the ECMO machine for a short period and this has given the doctors more reason to be encouraged by her progress. Eventually we try to relax and sleep and consequently oversleep in the morning.

When we arrive on the ward the nurses say that Grace's X-ray from today is looking much better than it did previously and that her infection markers are also down which is good. Grace's lung volumes (the amount of air that her lungs are taking in and out, as measured by the ventilator) have also improved and we can see this for ourselves (the number are in the 40s rather than the 20s now). Grace also had 2 lots of physiotherapy today and the physiotherapist has managed to get quite a lot of secretions up from Grace's lungs. Again this is a good sign apparently. We are so relieved that things are starting to look up, but again don't want to rely on anything too much. We do find time to watch some of the Strictly Come Dancing final though - my favourite and Gracie usually watches it with me - I miss her so much and can't wait for her to wake up and smile at me again. It certainly doesn't feel at all like Christmas without her.