September 9th

I planned on waiting until the evening to give my updates, but we have learned some new information that I want to share right away! During rounds this morning the doctors looked at an x-ray of his lungs and they have significantly improved. They are still not healthy, but there has been a pretty big change (due to the power of the prayers that have been offered on Elijah's behalf). So because his lungs are looking so much better they have decided to try to start taking him off the ECMO, which is a huge decision! Originally they planned on leaving him on this machine for 3-4 weeks while letting his lungs rest completely. They never did get him solely dependent on the machine, he has also been on a ventilator this entire time. So since his lungs seem to be doing some work they are going to see if they can do the job just with the ventilator.

So this morning they turned off the gas on the machine for a trial period. So the tube is still in his vein, pumping blood through the machine and back into his body, but the machine is not putting any oxygen in his blood. After this trial period they decided that he is doing just fine without it so they are planning to stop the blood flowing through the machine tomorrow sometime. If he does ok after that, they will take him off completely and remove the tubes from his neck. Then he would be relying on his own lungs as well as the respirator. This morning the doctor said best case scenario is that they will get him off the ECMO tomorrow and he will be on the respirator for at least a week still to recover.

Keep in mind they still have no idea what has caused his lung failure, so it is still very important that we find that out so they know how to treat it and prevent it from happening again. Also they are keeping him on the ventilator so he is still breathing with the help of a machine. It is great news that they are trying to take him off the ECMO, putting him on that has been the most concerning event so far. We are thrilled to know that he may do fine without it.

We are very excited and praising God for this news, but this is still a serious situation and we need your prayers to continue. Please pray that he does well being off the ECMO and that they are able to take him off of it completely by tomorrow as they plan. Also please pray that they can figure out what has caused this so they know how to treat it and we have an even faster recovery.

Thank you everyone for your prayers, God is so faithful! The doctors and nurses are very impressed by his improvement. I told our nurse that there are tons of people praying for him and I saw her tear up. God is showing and He's going to continue to show His power through this trial. Praise the Lord for everything He has done so far!