Giveforward for a Friend of Mine aka Help a Child Eat Bacon

[Brill Weave]

As of ten minutes ago the doctor's are continuing to test the liver. They are almost positive it is a good match. It looks like the surgery will be happening at 1pm. Evan is very sick and very weak from dialysis and the first surgery. Keep praying folks. This little man is blowing me away with how strong he is.

[Brill Weave]

We haven't had any updates since the last one. We're all assuming that means the liver was compatible and they are performing the surgery. It's been a long fucking weekend.

[Brill Weave]

The liver is a match. Evan was taken into the OR 45 minutes ago. Come on little man.

[BaneTheBrawler]

woo! small victories. hope he pulls through.

[Brill Weave]

Evan made it through the surgery! He is being taken up to recovery now. The surgeons feel this liver is a "much better" fit than the one they attempted to use earlier. The first week after the transplant is critical. Evan is extremely weak from both surgeries, kidney failure, and dialysis so he is nowhere near out of the woods yet. This is the first bit of good luck though. Keep your fingers crossed.

[Charismatic]

Evan made it through the surgery! He is being taken up to recovery now. The surgeons feel this liver is a "much better" fit than the one they attempted to use earlier. The first week after the transplant is critical. Evan is extremely weak from both surgeries, kidney failure, and dialysis so he is nowhere near out of the woods yet. This is the first bit of good luck though. Keep your fingers crossed.

Wonderful news!
I'm not normally the praying type but I figured it couldn't hurt. I'll continue to keep the lil' man in my thoughts and hope this first week goes well. Thanks for the update, Brill!

[Brill Weave]

They took Evan off sedation last night. He's not waking up as quickly as they would like. The concern is that when he was on dialysis the ammonia in his blood rose up to levels high enough to cause brain damage. They are supposed to do a brain activity test today. Awful news. To go through all of this only to potentially have caused brain damage is just horrible to even think.

[BaneTheBrawler]

fucking fuck. how much more slowly? i know when i go under i don't like to wake up because i forget i'm in a hospital and i keep trying to go back to sleep until i wake up enough to where i remember where i am. also my vitals just generally trend slower/lower so that causes some issues too. hopefully it's just one of his natural physiological quirks. or that he's tired.

[Brill Weave]

He's opened his eyes and has been interacting with everyone. He's off dialysis but his numbers are all over the place. They are trying to find the right anti coagulant dosage to give him to keep the liver from clotting like it did last time. The problem is that with his numbers so out of whack it's a different dose each time. But as of right now he's been moved out of the imminent death category into the he lived through surgery, seems mentally fine, but we all have to wait to see what happens with liver stage.

[Charismatic]

He's opened his eyes and has been interacting with everyone. He's off dialysis but his numbers are all over the place. They are trying to find the right anti coagulant dosage to give him to keep the liver from clotting like it did last time. The problem is that with his numbers so out of whack it's a different dose each time. But as of right now he's been moved out of the imminent death category into the he lived through surgery, seems mentally fine, but we all have to wait to see what happens with liver stage.

So far so good. I was really worried when you mentioned possible brain damage before. That "seems mentally fine" was buried too far into that post Brill! That was the first thing I wanted to know! And glad to know that he mostly sounds better and hope they can get everything stabilized with him.
Also, my heart goes out to the family, I know if it was even 'kind of' rough on me waiting, this had to have been hell for them. How have his parents been holding up through this whole thing?

[Brill Weave]

Honestly they are beyond running on empty. They haven't left the hospital since last Friday. His mother is also 6 months pregnant(or around there.) So she's been a bag of hormones to start with. We're all hoping they take a day and just try to rest. The Ronald McDonald house has been putting them up since his first transplant. So they at least have a nice comfortable place to stay with other families going through similar situations. Everyone keeps telling them not to forget to take care of themselves but let's be real. If it were my son I'd be pretty much rooted to the spot next to his hospital bed.

[Brill Weave]

Here's a photo of him from yesterday. He's so swollen because of the dialysis and retaining liquids.


Spoilered again because this is an image that's hard to look at as a parent.

Spoiler: show

[AidenCarby]

sigh

[BaneTheBrawler]

christ

that kid is going to be a fucking champion at something involving patience/endurance.

[Brill Weave]

Only update we've had today sounds fairly ok. Little dude is a fucking soldier.

Evan is still in the PICU but he had a a good night last night. They weened him off of his oxygen today and they hope to remove one of his arterial lines today or tomorrow. He continues to produce more urine so that is another good sign that his kidneys are on the mend. They are going to switch him from his heparin blood thinner to a Lovenox shot today also.

[Tyche]

Wasn't he intubated? Thought I recall seeing him on a vent in one of the pictures. Regardless, those are all very good signs. You're underselling it by calling it an OK day. Making urine, moving to enoxaparin, weening off supplemental oxygen...all major steps in a critical patient.

[Charismatic]

Only update we've had today sounds fairly ok. Little dude is a fucking soldier.

Wasn't he intubated? Thought I recall seeing him on a vent in one of the pictures. Regardless, those are all very good signs. You're underselling it by calling it an OK day. Making urine, moving to enoxaparin, weening off supplemental oxygen...all major steps in a critical patient.

Very glad to read this. Little soldier indeed!

[Brill Weave]

Wasn't he intubated? Thought I recall seeing him on a vent in one of the pictures. Regardless, those are all very good signs. You're underselling it by calling it an OK day. Making urine, moving to enoxaparin, weening off supplemental oxygen...all major steps in a critical patient.

He still is. There is talk about removing it today.

[Petitssk]

Those are excellent news, keeping my fingers crossed for the little champion.

[Brill Weave]

Another update.

EVAN UPDATE: Neck catheter is out! And he is getting moved to the regular transplant ward today! His lipase level went up again meaning a chemically inflamed pancreas ( quite common with abdominal surgery) so they are holding off on his feeds and giving him TPN through his IV for today. Will check tomorrow to see if his level improves. Step by step!