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As a nurse on the ECMO unit so aptly put it today, “people love the ECMO machine when their loved one first gets on it and they hate the ECMO machine at the end.”

As we are learning, as every family learns that gets onto the ECMO unit, it’s tough business. Very tough business to put it mildly. Last night was a hard night for Walker after they changed out his central line and had trouble getting it to clot off. Very painful and traumatic for a young man. So, he was sore and grouchy this am and didn’t want to work at walking but they made him anyway. He did it begrudgingly, trudgingly (a new term I made up for the walk of EMCO patients) a little ways not too successful.

After a solid nap, they charged him again late afternoon with standing and walking with all his gear, tubes, and staff to better results and much less grudging during the trudging. Yeah, good for you Walker!! He’s having to dig deeper than deep to find the courage and strength to persevere through the fire of this life altering challenge.

Getting Walker off this ECMO machine is complicated but doable. His stats are strong and his lungs are performing much, much better so much so that we have been told that he could operate without the ECMO machine if he has to. But that it is better to stay on the machine for the further healing of his young lungs. The timing has to be just so, so that the patient doesn’t have to, God willing, be put back onto the machine but it happens.

So his body is getting stronger and we would ask for prayers for his own belief in his recovery to grow stronger. We believe in him, now he has to believe in him. Dear Jesus, give Walker extraordinary strength right now in body and mind. Thank you and Amen.