Needs a little more time

     They tried to take Brenya off ECMO today.  They did a trial where they clamped off the blood supply to the machine and let her body oxygenate on it's own.  After about 15 mins of her being on her own, Brenya's O2 levels dropped lower than a normal level so they had to unclamp the tubes and give her support again.  The doctors told us not to worry about this because it only means she needs more time to heal. The chest x-ray they did after the trial showed that her lungs need to expand just a little bit more.  The doctors would like to give her tomorrow to rest and then do another trial on Tuesday to see if they can take her off.  The problem with waiting, though, is that the tubes in the ECMO circuit have clots in them.  They may have to switch out the circuit before they can take her off.  If they do this, it may cause her to swell up again and set her back a little.  Hopefully, the clots won't move or get any bigger so they don't have to switch out the circuit and she can come off ECMO on Tuesday.