Sir, May I Have Another? or Good Gravy! Enough Already

OK, gang - just when you thought it was safe AND just when we thought Patty and Sarah would be coming home after THREE weeks at Children's...here is the rest of the story.

Last night Sarah had a 102.6 fever and she still has some fever now. Today was scheduled for her GI scope to do some sclerosis to clear up her esophagal varices. Lo and behold, while the docs are in there looking around they see gastric varices! Patty said the docs come out after 2o minutes and she is thinking, "Great! The varices have reduced and are looking good." But wait - they won't treat esophagal varices when gastric varices are present because of the strain that would put on those in the stomach. Are you still tracking with me?

So, no problem, right, they will just care of the gastric varices and we can go from there. Wrong. Gastric varices are untreatable. Since the danger is great that treating the esophagal varices will create a bleed in the stomach, this doesn't paint a very happy picture. In the event those in the stomach did burst, it would create a potentially life threatening situation for Sarah --- and then she would need a new stomach as well as a liver.

Dr. Horslin relayed all of this information to Patty not long ago. Our best case scenario is a new liver SOON, as this would completely alleviate all the varices concerns, no matter where they are. Patty also asked Dr. Horslin if she could become the donor and he seemed to think it was not out of the question, though Dr. Reyes, the head of the transplant team, seems to believe otherwise. Patty would be looking at a total recovery time as a donor of up to 6 months (that's returning to 100%) although Dr. Horslin stated a lot of moms can get to a functioning stage in about 2 months.

Patty has asked the question of the day on Facebook: "anyone know someone who wants to give a 1/3 of their liver to my baby? "A" blood type or O+?" She is not asking this rhetorically but no matter the donor, whether we know them or not, they would have to have a healthy liver which means no damage from drinking, drugs, etc. and they would have to be up for the 6 week to 6 month recovery time. 

I prefer to contend in prayer that the right liver will come NOW for Sarah via the normal channels. Can you please contend with us in prayer? You have all been so faithful to our family.

Kirk