Tuesday Morning

Luke has been doing well all the way until this morning, where we had a major ER type of atmosphere in the room. His blood pressure dipped and kept going down. They had to give him about 800cc of liquids and medicate him with BP enhancers. I was nervous to say the least, but as I have done in the last 4 months, I held on to God's word. He hasn't forsaken me and has always come to my rescue when I called on Him. He's my strength and ever present help. He's my fortress and my hiding place. After about an hour of the drs, nurses, and medical staff's hard work, and my cry out to God, Luke's BP went up and stabilized. At the moment, we have Dr. Fishbein and ultrasound tech going through scans of Luke's tummy to figure out what took place this morning and figure out if there was any damage to his new liver.

Please continue to keep Luke in your prayers. As you know this is a major surgery on a baby and per our PICU dr, he's progressing well but not "out of the woods" yet. We always trust in God's report but God sure trust us in our ability to lean on Him!!

In the last 4 months I've learned a lot about people and life. I'm more encouraged about people now much more than before. About life, well, God didn't lie when he said in John 16:33 "These things I have have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world." God has sent great people our way to help us get through this storm. Our daily peace comes from the relationship with God, and one thing I can tell for sure is that your prayers have made a major impact already in this journey, THANK YOU! When you go through hell, it is nice to know that heaven is hopeful with people like you. Please keep Luke in your fervent prayers - pray for

• Luke's new liver to continue to function well
• Stable blood pressure, pulse, CVP, etc
• All the drs and medical staff for wisdom and direction for Luke's care
• Daily peace and rest for Jen (and the baby!), Levi, Luke, and I
• All our helpers - God direction and God's blessings for their sacrifices

I cannot say enough about my brother-in-law, Michael. He traded places with me giving Luke a life - when my blood and liver were ruled out. His blessing is eternal and his love is the greatest human love of all. I pray for him and thank God for the progress he has already made since the surgery. The sacrifices his wife, Ellen and their 18-month old daughter, Emmy Lou are making cannot be repaid. We are ever so grateful to them! Please keep Michael, Ellen, and Emmy Lou in your prayers. Pray for a speedy recovery and reunion.

Update: Ultrasound was reviewed by Dr. Fishbein and it seems like all the vessels are working good. Praise God! They are monitoring the BP, and trying to get the liquids out of his body slowly. He will be on the ventilator for two more days, I think. And his food will resume tomorrow through a tube. His BP is fluctuating and we need urgent prayer.

Blessings!

Ben

Sunday Update

Last night I went to the hospital to see Lukey and Michael. Lukey is doing good. The liver function is good and they were just trying to get his blood pressure stabilized. He woke up while I was there and put his arm up on his forehead. They quickly gave him more sedation so he won't move around. He looks much better, just a little puffy. He is retaining a lot of fluid. Because he has so much fluid around his lungs, they don't want to try to take him off the ventilator. They want to wait until he gets rid of some of the excess.
Michael was not feeling so great last night. He was having a lot of pain in his stomach. The Dr. said that they used retractors to hold his stomach muscles open during surgery so it is not surprising that he is having painful spasms in his stomach muscles. They tried to get him to swallow a little ginger ale and his muscles all started spasming. I felt very badly that there is nothing I can do for him. The good news is they moved him out of the ICU last night and into a room in another building. The woman who was next to him in the ICU was a serious problem. Not to be mean, because I am sure she was suffering, but she was never quiet. He wanted out of there so badly. Now he is sharing a room with another liver donor. I am about to head out to Georgetown to visit everyone for awhile. My mom flies in tomorrow evening..thank God! I'm sure Michael will feel much relief when she gets here.
I will continue to keep you posted their progress. Thank you for all your prayers.

Latest Update

I just spoke with Ben and he gave me the update. What the surgeon thinks happened is that the liver was settling into position, and during that process one of the vessels formed a clot in it. The blood flow had actually started to improve before he went for surgery, but Dr. Fishbein wanted to be absolutely sure about it so they went ahead with the surgery. He was in for about two hours and it looks like everything is going well now. They will do another blood test in about an hour which gives them some information they need. Dr. Fishbein said the liver has really settled in now, so they could see how everything is working in that position.
Ben told me that Luke woke up this morning and looked at him. He said he lifted his arm up, and then started to try to pull out the tubes and things. They had to sedate him again. My baby just wants to wake up and be unhooked. I got a status report on Michael too. He is having a lot of dizziness so they are going to try a different medicine to get it under control. Ben sounded very tired on the phone. He will call me when they have the results of the blood tests. Levi is really missing his daddy, so I think we will drive out to Georgetown this evening and drop off some food and my brother was wanting his phone and Ipod. Thank you for all your prayers. We appreciate them so much.

Transplant Update

Sorry I didn't get a chance to update last night. I had a very hard time last night after seeing Lukey. When we were finally able to see him, I just burst into tears. The ICU is a very busy and stressful place to be in...and loud. When we went into the room there were nurses and a doctor and respiratory therapists in there. So many machines...all beeping and alarms going off and my little baby just laying there hooked up to so much stuff. I could not handle it. I thought I was going to pass out. Just thinking about it right now makes my heart start to race. I had to sit down and try to breathe better. Needless to say, I came home last night. I was going to go rest at the Ronald McDonald House, but Ben said I should just go rest at home with Levi and he would stay with Lukey and call me if there was anything. I felt like a deserter. I had gone down to see my brother and he was in a lot of pain and feeling very nauseous. I felt so out of control and helpless, I just could not handle it. The Dr. said that everything was going well. The first few hours after a transplant they have to watch very closely and try to balance the fluids in his body and watch what is coming out of the liver to make sure there is no bleeding. I have been fighting a nasty cold paired with evening nausea and too much stress. I came home and slept. This morning Ben called and said that they have to take Lukey back to surgery. One of the vessels isn't allowing blood flow, so they have to go back in and see why that is happening and fix it. It's not rare for this to happen I guess, they said it is common. I just spoke with my brother on the phone and he is feeling better than yesterday. That gave me some relief. Let's just take Lukey to the Lord in prayer and pray that the vessels will all work and allow blood flow. Let's pray for his body to accept the liver and for a quick recovery. Pray for a quick recovery for Michael. Pray for Ben and John and Dileep who are constantly posted at the hospital watching and waiting. And please pray that God gives me strength to get through this. I need to be strong for my baby. I'll update after I know more about Lukey's surgery today.

Out of Surgery

Lukey is out of surgery. The surgeon came out and spoke to us about the surgery. He thought that it went very well. He said it was the best decision to do the transplant because the tumor was a really bad one. It had spread to the vena cava, so part of that had to be removed. Dr. Fishbein said he got really good margins and that he tested the lymph nodes for cancer cells..there were none. He said they got all the cancer. Due to some creativity in attaching the new liver, Lukey will have to remain sedated on the ventilator for at least two days. They don't want the liver moving around. Once it has had a chance to adhere and other organs have come in around it they will take him off the ventilator and slowly start waking him up. We have not seen Michael or Lukey yet. We are still waiting. They are both in their rooms, but still getting situated with the machines and hook-ups. I will update later on tonite in more detail. We thank you for all your prayers and encouraging words. Lukey is cancer free and we Praise God for it!! Love to you all.

Surgery Update 2:50pm

The surgeon just came out and said that Michael is done. They are just closing him up now. He said they got the liver out and it was a very healthy looking piece of liver. He will going up to the ICU where they will take the breathing tube out and I can see him in about an hour. The Dr. said that they had just started putting the liver in Luke and it would be about three more hours for Luke. The patient advocate then came out and said she had just peeked in on Luke in surgery and everything was going well. I will continue to update as I know more. Thank you all for your prayers. I feel more at peace than I normally would in this situation.

Surgery Update

Both Lukey and Michael are currently in surgery. Lukey went in at 8:45 am for a little exploratory look first. We sat with Michael until his part was a go. Michael went in at 10:30. The last update that I received was that Lukey was kinda in a holding pattern until they got the liver portion out of Michael. They had just started on Michael, so we are just waiting. She said that vital signs on both of them were good. I cried when they took Lukey from us. I just said a prayer, Lord I put him entirely in your hands. We then went and sat with Michael. Our good friend Dileep had been sitting with him all morning and keeping him company. That truly meant a lot to me. I will continue to update this as we receive more information. Please keep Lukey and Michael in your prayers today.