Monday's Update

Hi all,

The weekend was a rough one for Madeleine so I apologize for the lack of updates. I'll provide a quick update right now and will update when we get more information. When I posted on Friday, we were looking toward the long-term future with balancing Madeleine's pulmonary hypertension. This view is important but it failed to take into account the seriousness of Madeleine's current situation. On Saturday morning, we learned some troubling news: despite being on high settings on the ventilator, Madeleine's lungs weren't responding and were actually sliding backwards a bit. This was especially confusing to the doctors as a follow-up echocardiagram showed that Madeleine's pulmonary hypertension (PH) was at the same levels as she was diagnosed on Thursday-- i.e., her PH is significant but manageable.

Given this disturbing news, the doctors decided to start a round of steroids to help her lungs and also switched her from the traditional ventilator to an oscillating ventilator. (a more aggressive form of ventilation that opens up Madeleine's lungs more effectively.) Since these changes, Madeleine has responded well and they've been able to wean some of her support-- she's gone down on oxygen as well as on nitric oxide. While this progress is encouraging, we have a long ways to go. In the next 24 hours, the doctors hope to further wean her support and, if Madeleine responds well enough, they'd like to wean off the oscillator and back onto the traditonal ventilator.

That's all we know right now. We'd like to estimate time tables on her recovery but right now, we're taking it hour by hour and day by day. I'll try to update as we make progress but in the lieu of updates, operate on the assumption that no news is good news. Thanks again to everyone for your support.

Brent and Kirsten