May 10, 2012
Well, what to say…..actually now that we have had a couple
of days to process this most recent episode in our “liver journey” we can see
how fortunate we are to be under the care of the U of IA Hospitals! Yes, we
were devastated and still feel “pangs” of, if only, but we also realize that
these transplant surgeons are so on top of what is best for the patient. We have learned since then that this
particular liver was about 45% fatty and it would have made it extremely tricky
to make the attachment to Charlie given his thrombosis in the portal vein and
where the fatty portion was in the donor’s liver. (We certainly would not have
wanted them to have started the surgery and then said, “This is not going to
work and stopped the surgery!)
So Charlie is still number 1 – before he was released on
Monday afternoon he had another CT scan and ultrasound to see the latest
situation on the thrombosis. Meg talked
to them yesterday and they are having a meeting Friday morning with all doctors
involved to review the latest findings and to decide if they are going to be
starting him on coumadin (blood thinner.)
Meg and Doug decided that this gave us a chance to “fine
tune” our "when we get the call checklist.” Next time, they will not get on a plane until an incision is made
and we “send” them a picture – where upon Doug will faint because his is quite
squeamish and miss his plane! I learned that I am very comfortable with Meg’s
partner, Jen, being in charge of the “pen” in communicating with “Charlie’s
Health Update!” I also learned that Doug’s wife, Michelle, will keep us
centered in prayer – when I called to let Doug know the call had come all I
could do was cry and kind of loose it – Michelle got me calmed down!
So all is good – I had an early Mother’s Day with both kids.
Doug flew home Tuesday afternoon. Meg and I had a fun day of antiquing down in
Kalona, Iowa yesterday and she just left for Seattle. An added bonus is that she needed another
suitcase to get her “loot” home so we sent her home with one of ours filled
with some of our winter clothes wrapped around treasures! (We certainly hope
that we are not here long enough that we need those clothes back!)
We can’t begin to thank all of you for your prayers and for
placing us on your prayer chains. We are continually humbled by all of you! We
hope that another call will come to you soon – we did also learn that this
actually can happen several times before the surgery happens. But, we will not
dwell on that…..we will continue to enjoy spring in Iowa!
