Daily Status UpDade - Monday, 8/25/14

In true Dade fashion, today has been eventful.  He's had some swelling of his head over the weekend, and it's worse today.  We now know why. After a head/neck/chest ultrasound this morning, Dr. Anderson saw that Dade has a blood clot in his superior vena cava which is just as serious as it sounds.  This is a vessel that flows directly to the heart and in which one of his cannulas was inserted. Clots are actually fairly commonplace with ECMO because the cannulas are inserted into the vessels, but that doesn't make it any less serious.  The clot isn't fully blocking the vessel, but it is slowing the flow through that region of his body - hence the swelling in his head.  Dade has had a long, crappy day with plenty of poking and prodding, but he's done well through it, and is sleeping well now. After consulting with the CH hematologist, Dr. Anderson has put Dade on a new blood thinner to keep the clot from expanding. His body should absorb the clot, but there are other options if it doesn't.  It may take several days for us to see results from the new blood thinner (i.e. reduction of swelling) that show if the clot is being absorbed.  In the meantime, our new prayer target is that the clot doesn't move.  Please, please pray that it doesn't move.