What's New?

Micah returned to Duke on Tuesday for a checkup. Based on his labs the previous Friday, we were anticipating that he would receive a blood transfusion. When his labs were done on Tuesday morning, his blood levels had risen and he did not need a transfusion. His hematocrit and hemoglobin are still hovering kind of low, but not at the point of needing the transfusion. Hopefully they will continue to trend upwards and he will not need the transfusions so frequently or at all. Micah also had an ultrasound done on his liver to see how his bile duct looked. Everything looked good. So now the plan is for Dr. Suhoki to go in through vascular radiology to see if the duct is actually opened on its own, or if the stint alone is keeping it open. If the duct is opened completely independent of the stint, he plans to remove the stint and the bile drain. The exact date for this to take place is not yet set, but it should be next week.

Micah is doing very well. He seems to feel the best he has felt since last fall, shortly after his transplant. It is such an encouragement to our hearts to see him smiling and laughing all the time.

This morning we awoke to find that Micah's biliary drain tube had come unstitched from his skin and he had pulled it about six to eight inches out (though some remained inside of him). We called Patti, Dr. Berman's faithful nurse, who contacted Dr. Suhoki. In the end, Patti came by our house (yes, by our house and we paid her with a bag of chicken! just kidding) and removed the drain tube.

Micah did have a fever this afternoon and will start antibiotics at home today. We're not certain the reason for the fever, but we are glad that at least for now it doesn't demand that we go to Duke and start a new hospitilization.

Thank you for your continual prayers. Thank you for bearing with me as I have been delayed in updating the site.