A really good day and a prayer request

Today was a good day for Bonnie.  We found out this morning that she's down to 45% support on ECMO, which for her is the lowest setting the machine can be on and still function.  She's tolerated this really well, and her oxygen saturations have been awesome all day.   Right now the plan is to leave her at 45% for the rest of the weekend, then do a "trial off" early early Monday morning.  If *that* goes well, the plan is to decannulate (i.e. take her off ECMO) sometime later in the day on Monday.

Here's where we need your prayers.  The ECMO machine is running so slowly that there is theoretically an increased risk of clots forming in the circuit.  Bonnie's been having to get lots of platelets today to replace the ones being "eaten" by the machine.  Her nurse today voiced some concern that leaving her at such a low flow rate for the next 36 hours or so could cause the oxygenator to clot, and it would have to be replaced.  Not a huge deal, because that wouldn't be as bad as replacing the entire circuit, but still not desirable.  It could set her back a few days in getting off ECMO.  Please pray that the circuit stays clear (or clear enough) so that we can keep to the current plan and time frame.

Update:  We just spoke with Bonnie's nurse tonight, and she said they've gone up on her ECMO flow to 65% due to some "blood pressure issues."  Not sure if it was low or high or why that would necessitate an adjustment to her ECMO flow, but the nurse said that she'll likely still be able to wean down to 45-50% by tomorrow night and then have her trial off early Monday.  (It's actually somewhat of a relief to me that her flow is a bit higher, because having a faster flow might help prevent more clots from forming in her circuit.)