| MandiesMom | 05-20-2013 01:30 PM |
Okay, here is what happened over the last few days. Saturday, she was not good by any means, but even her bad numbers held steady most of the day. She had a lot of visitors and even interacted (while heavily drugged). She smiled at several of us and even watched some videos on my mom's iphone. You could tell she was watching even though she was drugged and her eyes were only half open because her eyes would follow it and she would grin every once in a while. Her CO2 levels were "good" at around 50 all day (no idea what that means, but for her, that was "good")
Fast forward a few hours to the next day, yesterday. I was told to get up there asap..that her numbers were crashing and my sister needed me. I jumped in the car and drove up there. Her temp spiked again and wouldn't go down and they were worried she would get septic again. Her CO2 levels jumped to 80. So, basically, she was being poisoned. Even with a breathing machine, her damaged and diseased lungs just can't change CO2 to O2.
Sooo, at 10:30 last night, they started a procedure to put her on ECMO, which is basically an artificial lung to change those gases for her. The thing with ECMO is...they put a huge tube in her largest, femoral vein...that bleeds into the machine the oxygenates it and then goes back up a huge tube into her femoral artery. It's extremely risky to bleeding out and clotting and strokes.
About 2 hours into it, the surgeon (who is "the best" according to everyone) came out all red faced and sweaty and very obviously frustrated. They couldn't get her veins to cooperate. Jada has spent 23 years of having her veins attacked, having ports in, etc...they are all scarred up and others are small and others are just useless. He went back saying they were bringing down ultrasound to find more access.
An hour and a half later at almost 3am - he came out all cool and calm and said, "It's done. It's working well."
I went back and saw her. She looked beyond horrifying, but her stats looked great. Basically, we bought her a little more time in hopes of those lungs coming in. She has to have the transplant now - do or die, literally...she can't be on ECMO forever.
I went home at 5am this morning feeling a little more positive. Then, at noon, my mom tells me the ECMO is being re-done because the circulation "past" the spot it is in now won't allow blood flow past it. So, her lower left leg is getting NO CIRCULATION. They were going to try her neck. I knew last night that I heard them say her neck was almost next to an impossible option. I about lost it walking into work. Then, Mom tells me they couldn't..I wasn't surprised. They tried another spot on her leg but it just wouldn't work.
So, where it stands now is..they left it where it is and I'm assuming she still has no circulation..?? I dont know any more than that. I am going back up there tonigh. Apparently, my dad is coming from Florida tonight, also.
So, please, prayers -- lots of prayers | 