Where's the Fun in Taking the Easy Way?

Four months ago, Missy had her liver transplant. We are currently back in Phoenix for her four month checkup. We are also here to have her stents replaced that helped to fix her bile leak. It doesn't seem like it has been four months since the transplant. In some ways, it seems shorter. In other ways, it seems longer than that. It seems like I was just here, sitting in the Transplant House updating our blog. Sometimes, it's hard to remember how sick Missy really was before the transplant.

In keeping with our tradition of making things interesting, we have had a couple of hurdles this week. The doctors anticipated that the stent replacement procedure would take 45 minutes to an hour. Then there would be about 30 minutes or so in the recovery room. There was even the possibility of not needing to place new stents. We were encouraged and looking forward to that outcome.

We really didn't expect to take the easy way, did we? One of the bile ducts was extremely constricted. We don't know if that happened before or during the procedure. It took a lot of time and skill by the doctors to open up the duct and place two new stents inside. It took about 3 hours.

Then came the recovery. After meeting with the doctors shortly after the procedure was done, they told me that I could see Missy in about 30 minutes. The 30 minutes turned into about 4 hours. Missy was having a hard time waking up from the anesthesia. Once she did wake up, she was very nauseated. They gave her some medicine for the nausea, but it only made her more sleepy. They tried some other meds, and finally decided she could be released. Missy was extremely nauseated for the remainder of the day and evening.

Wednesday was filled with poking and prodding appointments. Those went as well as could be expected. Thursday was our day of consultation appointments. Most results were very good. Missy's itching and nausea are most likely side effects of her many required medicines. Her hair loss will slow down and be back to normal soon. She is a little anemic, so she will need to start on an iron supplement. The liver doctor wanted to take her off one of her anti-rejection drugs, which would be a very good thing since she takes 8 pills of this drug each day. The problem (and we always seem to have one) is that her liver enzymes are higher than the doctors would like them to be.

The liver enzyme problem could be an early sign of rejection, or it could be a result of the bile duct issue. To make sure, the doctor wants to perform a liver biopsy on Friday morning. The doctors don't seem to think that it is a big deal, but we don't want Missy to have to go through any more pain. We will know the results of the biopsy on Monday.

Even with all of this news, we are still being positive. God is still in control, and none of this has surprised Him. We are still trusting Him for good outcomes. He hasn't and won't let us down. So, we get to spend an extra day in Phoenix. The airline, rental car company, and Transplant House have been great in working with us to extend our stay. God is good...all the time...even when things don't seem to go the way we planned.