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

[AidenCarby]

That kid is a god damn warrior.

[Brill Weave]

Compared to the last picture of him I posted, he looks great.

[Mina]

I'm really glad he's improving, Brill. I have been sharing this story with people on twitter and around me at work and friends. We've all been keeping Evan in our thoughts and hoping the best recovery for him.

[synistar]

This has really been a feel good story for me personally with its emotional ups and downs. Working in the transplatnation diagonstics industry, this is rare time I have put a face to the work I'm doing day in and day out. I will probably end up sharing this story with my coworkers so they understand what our work does for the world.

Happy the kid is improving.

[Brill Weave]

I don't think anything else needs to be said.






He might be going home Thursday.

[Charismatic]

Awesome!
Definitely some great holiday news for the family.

So glad to see him looking well!

[Melena]

Two surgeries, zero fucks given it looks. Bring on the bacon. Good to see he's going home soon.

[Petitssk]

Incredible news, I'm really happy for everyone involved. Nothing but deep respect for those who were there for him through the whole ordeal, the doctors and, of course, the little guy himself.

[BaneTheBrawler]

in the other pictures he looks like he could be 5ish but hes starting to look his age again. heartily approve.

glad to hear hes doing well!

[Lyall]

That's definitely a "I'mma get some bacon" face.

So happy for him and his family.

[Brill Weave]

I am very happy to say that Evan has been released and is on his way home as we speak.

[Charismatic]

[Brill Weave]

Sadly he's back in the hospital. His numbers were a bit high so they are keeping him overnight until they drop back down. I don't know what numbers they're referring to but apparently my theory is correct. All numbers are bad.

[Tyche]

Most likely Bilirubin. Usually acute post op.

[Brill Weave]

Most likely Bilirubin. Usually acute post op.

Here's what his mother posted.

Our plan for tomorrow: they're going to admit Evan in the morning for observation. He will be having blood work and an ultrasound done. If his enzymes warrant a biopsy they will be doing that tomorrow. Unfortunately due to his kidney injury they could not give him the normal dose of Prograf that they give to most other patients. If his liver is going intomild rejection, hopefully they can fix it by giving him a higher dose of prograf or steroids. We of course hope that everything turns out okay and this is just another small bump in the road.

Evan's ultrasound looked fine, but the liver enzymes are slightly higher than yesterday. So they are doing a biopsy around 4 pm to check for mild rejection and infections. Luckily they can treat this with higher levels of immune suppressants. We will be staying overnight for monitoring and if all looks good, we can be discharged tomorrow.

[AidenCarby]

More steroids, that's never good.

[Tyche]

Not necessarily bad either. You give steroids for a multitude of varying reasons.

What it sounds like is possible acute rejection. Oddly enough, there's acute rejection and chronic rejection. Rejection doesn't always mean that it's a failed transplant. To treat it, you have to suppress the immune system (prograf) so the immune system doesn't completely fight off the transplant. However, he's in acute (on chronic?) kidney disease, so the amount of prograf they can give is limited without really screwing with his chemistries. I think, I'm not a pharmacist, but steroids allow you to give higher doses of prograf to get a therapeutic trough levels.

[AidenCarby]

The term "more" is what I was referring to.

[BaneTheBrawler]

yeah. i get steroids when i get too sick, but usually only a week-long course to keep me from getting too much worse while they set up another solution.

long-term and/or increased dosage is never really a good thing.

hopefully it's a relatively easy fix with no lasting repercussions!

[Brill Weave]

We will not be getting Evans liver biopsy back until tomorrow. However his liver enzymes have dropped after they gave him an extra dose of steroids which is a good sign. Hopefully if all looks good with the biopsy of the liver numbers keep trending down we will be released tomorrow.

I couldn't even imagine how his parents are handling all this. But he DID get to eat bacon right before they took him back to the hospital. No surprise, he fucking loved it.