12/8 4:00 pm

Ethan had an echo with the profusion team. They think he is ready to come off of ECMO today. It is a relief from the perspective that every time he moves his legs I am worried he will dislodge a cannula and bleed out. It seems I am not the only one with this fear as people hustle in when he starts flailing.

Recently he tried to get up out of bed and was going to be completely nude. We discussed the strict policy the ICU has on streaking and how that is not appropriate. I am sure he has learned this behavior from his father.

So now the nurses are preparing to move Ethan with all his 16 pumps (we gained a few over the last few hours) to the OR. What a disaster.

We may be eliminating some machines though and clearing out this room a little.

So basically in Ethan’s left leg is a cannula in his femoral vein and in his right leg there is a cannula in his femoral artery.  They can remove the cannula in his vein and apply pressure to stop bleeding. Easy peasy.

The artery is different. That’s the one if they remove, he could bleed out, so they have to act swiftly. They clamp off above and below where the cannula goes in. The remove the cannula and apply a patch made of bovine pericardium. This is essentially cow heart tissue. It is harvested and then processed to be acellular so the body doesn’t reject it. Brilliant. This tissue is applied over the opening of the artery and sewn in.  This makes it so that the artery doesn’t create a narrowing as it is healing. Then wham bam thank you man, he will be heading back to ICU with me.

I am losing count of how many times this kid has gone to the operating room.

So a team of people started coming in and getting him ready to be mobile. It takes about an hour to pack him up. I had to sign more forms allowing them to use blood product if he bleeds and to go over all the horrible things that can go wrong. I sign my name, print my name, state my relationship, date and record the time.  Next.....same steps all over again.....next.....

Somewhere along the way I only wrote my first name on a line I was supposed to print my entire name.  About 10 minutes later on of the ladies came in and said “I am sorry to bother you but we have to have you print your first and last name on this line.”  I looked at it and it just said Patricia.

Dead serious was painted on my face as I looked at her.   I have interacted with this lady multiple times in a friendly manner. I said point blank.  “Today I decided to go down to one name.  You know, like Beyoncé and Madonna.” She laughed. I apologized and added my last name.

I gave a warning to the anesthesiologist. He needs lots on anesthesia.  He was already on it. “ I have heard about Ethan.”  He said while Patting his pocket that was full of syringes holding the magic sleepy drugs. 

This surgery should take about 2 hours they said.