Esther is 3 weeks and 1 day old now.
Thank you everyone for your notes and prayers for us. I know some have asked for our mailing address in Grand Rapids to cards. Our address is: Hannon, PO box 2703, Grand Rapids, MI 49501
Today was a busy day trying to prep Esther for surgery. They tried to wean her off the ECMO circuit. On ECMO they can control everything about the circulation of her blood. From the flow to the temperature of the blood. How they wean her is by going down on the blood flow, which makes her heart start working. Once they have the flow low enough they clamp the circuit off and see how she does. They watch her numbers (blood pressure, O2 among other things) and see if she can handle being disconnected. She was able to get pretty low flow but not all the way. So she is still on ECMO.
Also yesterday they added a new chest tube. They did an ultrasound of her right lung and saw a substantial amount of fluid there. Even though they do X-rays often, you can’t see fluid on an X-ray. Once they placed the chest tube they pulled out 120ml of old blood. They did a chest X-ray and saw an improvement of her right lung. Which is great! Because she is on the blood thinners the chest tube kept draining blood. This might have contributed to her not being able to wean off of ECMO. Because of the blood loss they did not want to operate on her until it stopped. The doctors decided to stop her heparin and start a medication that helped with clotting. That has stopped the draining and she seems to be doing great.
She is scheduled for surgery at 9 am, Thursday morning. The surgery is to bring down her internal organs and patch the hole in her diaphragm. This doesn’t fix the problem with her lungs. We chose to do this surgery now so that she has the support of ECMO to recover. It is very risky to preform surgery while on ECMO. She is on blood thinners which could cause massive bleeding. After surgery, Esther will probably get worse before she gets better. Please continue to pray for Esther. We know God has been here with us and helped Esther in so many ways. Pray that He continues to heal her.
I will be updating throughout the day on Esther’s facebook page. www.facebook.com/esthermaehannon
i do try to explain what is going on, but if you have any questions you can email or message on facebook. Hannon.lauren@gmail.com
Sara Smith
July 17, 2014 at 6:48 amLauren and Dave~ We are all praying hard for Esther. Please let us know if there is anything we can do for your family or any specific prayers that are needed. Thank you guys for being such strong and faithful christians even through trials like this. We all love you guys!
Dawn Fuller
July 17, 2014 at 7:18 amWe pray that God will guide with wisdom during this delicate surgery for sweet baby Esther! And Jesus’s healing hands will touch her and give her strength! In Jesus Name, Amen ♡ (A friend of Janel Nooney)
Emily A
July 17, 2014 at 8:44 amThank you for all the updates, Lauren. We are praying for Esther and the entire family, believing in God, our great Physician, to accomplish His work and receive the glory. It sounds like there is a gifted medical team working with Esther. We are thankful for their knowledge and pray for the right hands to be working with her today for surgery. We love you guys and baby Esther and we are so excited to meet her! And I have been in awe lately of a God who loves Esther more than we do and can accomplish for her the things that we cannot! Thank you for your faith. You are blessing to us all.
Jeanne
July 17, 2014 at 12:07 pmPraying hard and thinking of you guys. My heart is full for little Esther and all I can do is pray and watch as God himself oversees her past, present and future. As someone else said, He cares more for this little child than any human and He will do what is good. Of course, our hope is for her complete recovery. Love you guys.