One year ago Peyton was taken off ECMO

Good news came to us one year ago today. Overnight, Rick and I had came home and stayed with the boys and as worried as I was, I managed to stay there all night. Peyton was scheduled for a "wash out" surgery in the morning to make sure there was no blood clots and such and to just cleanse his chest out of the dry blood and all. Rick and I were obviously unable to make it up before he went into the surgery but we called to check on him very frequently. On the way up, he was still in surgery and when we got here, the nurse caught us and told us some great news. Peyton is off of the Ecmo machine.

When we finally got to see him he was heavily sedated. They had put his mittens on his feet which meant the swelling was kinda going down. See his puffy little hands? Now that ECMO was off, they had to wait until he lost alot of the fluid before they could consier closing him up. Daddy holding Peytons hand. We both spent alot of time at his bedside - which got us in trouble some time b/c it would get him excited and then he would start breathing over the vent more and then the alarm would go off and then they would come rushing in only to see mommy or daddy standing by the bedside saying "sorry, i was talking to him".

From the door to his room, what a mess. The machines on the right are all the IV monitors. They controlled how much and when and where and what kind. They alarmed all the time too.

Here's a "whats that" picture. The Red tube coming from out of his chest is his drainage tube. That drains the blood from his chest around his heart. the other thing coming from under the bandage is the pace maker wires from his external pacemaker. They never had to use it! The IV in his arm was a PIC line that could be left in for days and would stay good. This was so they didn thave to keep poking him. He also had a cathetar in as well as another PIC line in his neck. This day he had the vent on as well.

Now, i Have a wedding this weekend, but i'll try and post as i'll ahve my slow laptop with me....lol. Have a great weekend if i cant and If i cant, I'll catch back up on Monday.