Updates: 04.29.2011

10 am: Scott and I are taking split shifts at the hospital today. Both of us being gone a few hours every day was getting to be too much for Alex. Scott is there now and he said they are going to do a trial run off of ECMO to see how Caleb does. His lungs improve every day and the bleeding hasn't completely stopped so they would really like to get him off of ECMO, but its all up to Caleb at this point. ♥ Team Caleb ♥


5 pm: So they took Caleb off of ECMO on an hour trial today and he did great so the plan is to take him off for good tonight or tomorrow depending on the surgeons schedule. Thank you for all of your continued prayers...they are working!! ♥ Team Caleb ♥


10 pm: Scott just called and they took Caleb of of ECMO. But now they can't get his blood pressure to stabilize. If they can't get it to they will have to put him back on ECMO again. Hopefully they can get it to stabilize soon.

Updates: 04.28.2011

I apologize for the delay on posting updates.   Catching up now :) 


9 am: Called the NICU to see if there was an update as far as getting him off of ECMO today. They ended up having to open him back up to check to see why he was bleeding so much. The Dr didnt have the report from the cardiologist back yet, but they said they would have it back by the time they got there in a couple of hours. Please pray the bleeding stops for good and he is healthy enough for them to get him off of ECMO.


Noon: The bleeding has slowed down and as long as it stays this way then they are going to leave Caleb on the ECMO for a couple of more days to try to get his lung function better but if it doesn't stay down then they are going to try to get him off the ECMO because of the blood thinners. ♥♥ Team Caleb ♥♥

Updates: 04.27.2011

Team Caleb we need your prayers. The hospital called and has decided to do surgery now to close the PDA. This is scary with him on ECMO bc of the risk or bleeding from the blood thinners. Also they have to leave his chest open for 24-48 hours after surgery and this runs the risk of infection. Please pray that everything goes well and there are no complications.




10 am: Everything went well with the surgery today and the doctors said Calebs lungs never looked better. They did a trial today of taking him off the ECMO and he did well so the doctors are now in the process of removing the canulas from his neck and Caleb will be ECMO free....GREAT NEWS! ♥♥♥


Change of plans. Cardiac surgeons had an emergency surgery come up so taking him off of ECMO will have to wait until tomorrow.

Updates: 04.26.2011

So today was another step forward for Caleb. The breathing treatments are slowly working so they are doing them every 8 hours. We talked to the Cardiologist today and he was talking about "when Caleb goes home". This brought such joy to my heart and are the best words I have ever heard. They are still waiting for his ductus arteriosus (PDA) to close. Once they get his lungs better they will wean him off of ECMO and will soon be deciding what to do about the PDA. If it doesn't close soon they will have to do surgery to close it. We are meeting with the cardiologists and neonatologists on Thursday afternoon to go over what the next steps are to get him healthy enough to go home. 

Thank you all so much for your continued support and prayers. We will never be able to thank you all enough! They are working!

Updates: 04.25.2011

1 pm: "Caleb is getting a breathing treatment right now. They need to get his lungs to open up more. His heart can handle being off of ECMO but not his lungs.

This treatment can cause bleeding in the lungs though.

Please pray that 1)the treatment works so he can get off of ECMO and 2) it does not cause any bleeding.

Also he smiled at us today :-) and is making a ton of faces at us. I am so glad to have gotten to see these things.

Thank you all for your continued support!"

5:30 pm: So the 1st treatment went well. They are doing an x-ray tonight to see if the treatment helped him to expand his lungs any. Then they were planning on doing another treatment tonight. So pray that this treatment worked and the xray shows improvement in his lung expansion and that the next treatment causes no bleeding. Thank you so much!! 

♥ Team Caleb ♥

Updates: 04.24.2011

HAPPY FIRST EASTER CALEB!  

From Caleb's mommy


I wanted to put a separate post up to just say thank you so much for all of the love we receive every day here. There is no way I can keep up with it all and respond to everyone because there are so many people posting (which is an amazing thing!), but I do see all of them and just love them all so much. They don't go unnoticed. We are so appreciative and are so blessed to have so many people pulling for him..even complete strangers.


Also I have had a couple of people ask me just out of curiosity so I wanted to address it. Some of the more recent photos of Caleb you can see that his head is "misshapen". This is because his head is always in one spot because of the ECMO machine (the cannulas are in his neck in the arteries there), but the doctors said that because his skull has not begun to fuse, everything will go back to normal once he is off of ECMO and able to move his head around more.


Evening Update:  "No changes to update today. They tried turning down the ECMO some and he didn't handle it well so they turned it back up and they are just letting him rest."

Updates: 04.23.2011

April 23 at 10:15pm "We spent the majority of the day at the hospital today. Caleb was having a "rest day" today. When they took him off of ECMO yesterday for the trial hour, he ended up having some bleeding into his lungs which put him a couple of steps back. They were letting him rest and get his strength today and will try another trial tomorrow or Monday. They are just trying to figure out the next steps to take to get him off of ECMO and go from there. It's a "trial" thing really. They let Caleb lead the way and do whats best for him. He is still strong and fighting, but still very sick. Please keep praying and asking God to watch over our sweet baby boy.

Thank you so so much to you all for all of your love and support. There is no way we could ever repay any of you for all that you have done for Caleb. Thank you thank you thank you." (from Sarah, Caleb's Mommy)