{"id":358,"date":"2025-11-22T12:52:20","date_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:52:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/?p=358"},"modified":"2025-11-22T12:52:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-22T12:52:21","slug":"the-road-to-recovery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/","title":{"rendered":"The Road to Recovery"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>To say these last few days have been difficult would be an understatement. We have been through heart surgeries and recoveries before, but this is a whole new kind of battle. Jake has fought through more than any person should ever have to, but we are seeing real signs of progress, and for that, we praise God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Medically, Jake is doing really well and making improvements every day. However, as that happens, we land in this weird in between.&nbsp; He is doing well enough to be less sedated, but not quite well enough to start removing supports yet. This means he is more aware of what is going on, but he isn&#8217;t lucid enough to truly understand or remember why we are here. It is a not an easy place to be, but it is a necessary part of this journey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>We have gotten some very encouraging news from our teams.&nbsp; The liver team is happy.&nbsp; They said his liver is doing beautifully, his belly is soft, his abdominal incision is healing nicely and his drains look \u201cperfect.&nbsp; He was able to clear over 3 liters of fluid in the past to days showing again that his kidneys are loving his new anatomy. His heart has made drastic recovery since surgery and it is behaving exactly the way they would expect.&nbsp; His lungs have made huge improvements in the past few days.&nbsp; Breath sounds have returned and today they plan on doing a low flow ECMO test and ECMO clamp test to see how he tolerates being off ECMO support.&nbsp; We are hopeful, given all the signs he is given us, that this will be a somewhat smooth transition.&nbsp; Once he is not reliant on ECMO, we can return to the OR to have ECMO removed and his chest closed. This will be a massive step forward in his recovery. Looking ahead, he is scheduled for a Cath on Monday to check his heart pressures and check for rejection. We are praying for lower pressures and no signs of rejection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I don&#8217;t know how we would have made it through these days without the army of support behind us. All the kind words, extra prayers, meals, and help at home remind us we aren&#8217;t fighting alone. It is so humbling to be on the receiving end of so much grace. You are the hands and feet of Jesus to our family right now, holding us up when we cannot stand on our own.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Please pray for a smooth day, and specifically for a successful surgery soon to close his chest and remove the ECMO support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"559\" src=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-1024x559.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-359\" srcset=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-1024x559.png 1024w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-300x164.png 300w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-768x419.png 768w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-1536x838.png 1536w, https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-2048x1117.png 2048w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To say these last few days have been difficult would be an understatement. We have been through heart surgeries and recoveries before, but this is a whole new kind of battle. Jake has fought through more than any person should ever have to, but we are seeing real signs of progress, and for that, we [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2307,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.6 (Yoast SEO v26.6) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The Road to Recovery - COTA for Jacob&#039;s Hope<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Hard days, but seeing real progress. Jake\u2019s kidneys are clearing fluid well. His liver looks beautiful and his heart has 4 working chambers. Today is a critical test day to see if he can tolerate coming off ECMO support. Praising God and grateful for your prayers.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The Road to Recovery\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Hard days, but seeing real progress. Jake\u2019s kidneys are clearing fluid well. His liver looks beautiful and his heart has 4 working chambers. Today is a critical test day to see if he can tolerate coming off ECMO support. Praising God and grateful for your prayers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"COTA for Jacob&#039;s Hope\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-11-22T12:52:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-11-22T12:52:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-1024x559.png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"stephaniesmith\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"stephaniesmith\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/\",\"name\":\"The Road to Recovery - COTA for Jacob&#039;s Hope\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/2025\/11\/22\/the-road-to-recovery\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6595\/2025\/11\/Gemini_Generated_Image_cbs8accbs8accbs8-1024x559.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-11-22T12:52:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-11-22T12:52:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/cota.org\/cotaforjacobshope\/#\/schema\/person\/3d98323526141bb680d7d67edd7b5d95\"},\"description\":\"Hard days, but seeing real progress. 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