Kaelyn is home!

I know I have left some holes in the story, but first things first: We are home! Kaelyn was discharged yesterday evening and we got home around 6:30 pm. It feels soooo good. Kaelyn and Jacob have really been enjoying being "a family" again. That's what they both keep telling me. Very cute.

So, on Monday, Kaelyn ended up only having an ultrasound. Her liver numbers were much better on monday and have continued to get better. The ultrasound showed that the common bile duct was filled with some sludge. Thus the reason the numbers went up. So they decided to just put her on Ursodile (bile thinner) and not do the whole liver biopsy/cholangiogram thing (thank heavens, literally). So, here we are, home.
HURRAY!

She did have to issues with withdrawal from her narcotics. So I did bring her home on a slower wean, but we can handle that. Atleast I have my little drug addict home! We just need to interest her in eating now. She also came home with one of her JP drains. She had a scan done yesterday where they pushed some contrast into the drain and watched where it went. It does communicated with the biliary system, so Dr. Healey just wants to leave it in for a couple more weeks. He feels that it is such a slow leak that it will heal up on its own. But we have dealt with tubes and drains for so long that it only feels 'normal' to come home with one! Eventually though, she should have no tubes comeing out of her belly, won't that be amazing!

We are just going to enjoy our little family this weekend and have fun with each other!

Love ya,

Angie

news...

Well, we all hope and pray for good news, but sometimes it just doesn't work out the way we all hope. Kaelyn's liver numbers are on the rise, doubling everyday. We had an ultrasound this morning. The good news is, we still can see some flow in both right and left hepatic arteries. The not so good news is that her bile ducts are very dialated and that could mean a blockage somewhere or her liver is finally showing us the damage that may be going on. Tomorrow Kaelyn is going in for a needle biopsy to make sure she is not having an episode of rejection. This is not as scary as it sounds. Rejection can be reversed very easily with about a weeks worth of IV Steroids. The other thing she is having done tomorrow is a cholangiogram. Sound familiar? She had many of these with her previous liver to check her bile ducts for flow or the lack of. She most likely will come out of surgery tomorrow with the dreaded, but ever familiar, bile drain. Hopefully they will see beautiful bile flow with no blockage, but I am not crossing my fingers.

I do apologize for the lack of updates lately. It has been really hard to get out of Kaelyn's room to a computer. Also I have been very tired, so when she is sleeping usually so am I. I will try and update tomorrow though so you all can hear the news.

Angie