They just took the ECMO machine away. I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand that miracle of medical engineering kept my daughter alive for a week after her surgery and let her heart relax and recover. On the other hand I'm so glad to see it go, knowing the risk of needing to use it again has gone.
This machine pumped her blood, added all the oxygen she needed, filtered out carbon dioxide, and pulling out extra liquid. It is an amazing thing, but it is also so scary to see the tubes coming out of your child's chest and running into the machine. There was a specialist constantly monitoring the circuit, as they call it, to make sure there wasn't any clots. The body doesn't like to have it's blood pumped through plastic tubes.
Her heart is pumping her blood on it's own now. It is more relieving than I had imagined it would be. It has been a long road to get here and a still longer road ahead of us, but this is a milestone.
Ruby is 6 months, 7 days old. She has been asleep (sedated) for the past 8 days. I haven't seen our oldest daughter for 11 days. I just want to hold my girls and never let go.