Our First Milestone

Team Blake,

We have conquered our first giant milestone. A few days ago the Dr’s began weaning Blake off ECMO. They did a test by “clamping” off the machine to see if he could do all the work himself, and he did! We were then on deck for the surgery to remove the cannulas. We are now more than 48 hours out, and he is doing well without the extra support for his heart and lungs.

Through this process we have encountered some new challenges and complications, but the team here is addressing each with plans we feel confident in. It feels like one thing after the next, but are hopeful that we are still making slow forward progress.

We will have more tests this week to help us understand more about his heart/lung function, and Blakies will need to prove to us that he can breathe without the ventilator. He currently remains completely sedated, but extubation will be the next big milestone.

Though we know this will be a long bumpy road, we remain proud that our lil guy made some big strides in the last few days.

Thank you all for your continued support and outpouring of love. This whole experience is so ridiculously hard to comprehend, but you are helping lift our spirits and reminding us that we are not in this alone.

PS: Please do something nice for someone – for Blake! Tell us about your experience so we can tell Blake the impact he’s making and how important he is.

#teamblake #forblake