Wednesday, October 1st

It's October already! Yes, we're still here in Phoenix, yes, Dan is still in Mayo Hospital. The past few days have been very busy. Many teams of doctors from liver transplant, cardiology, respiratory, and kidneys have been to see Dan the past few days, sometimes as many as 15 people in the room at one time. Dan has had a hard time breathing the past few days and his heart rate has been irregular and sometimes afib again, so the team approach seemed needed. It was a little stressful for the family, we don't understand half of what they are saying, but thankfully someone translates "medical-eze" into English for us.

The consensus is a process using medications to aggressively go after the fluid that the kidneys are not getting out, which affects Dan's breathing and heart. They started a different diuretic called Bumex, that got things started. Today, he got a huge dose of albumin which will force the fluid residing in the tissues back into the vascular system, then he got a huge dose of lasex to get the kidneys to process the fluid out. The extra diuretics have also loosened up fluid in his lungs and he is coughing like crazy which they encourage. They monitor his potassium regularly since a loss of liquid will mean a loss in potassium which could affect the heart, and so far his potassium is normal. Respiratory therapy is also ordering a breathing treatment, the kind some use for asthma, in hopes of loosing up more fluid in his lungs. They also drained about 1 liter of fluid yesterday from the outside of his lungs (thorocentesis).

As they work hard to get all his organs working well again, amazingly his new liver is working "beautifully" according to the doctors. I need to keep remembering this and this amazing gift from the parents of a 19 year old boy. I pray God will keep reminding us of this when the road to recovery is long and frustrating.

We enjoyed a visit today from Alan and Carol Ann Watanabe visiting from Hawaii and we look forward to seeing them again on Saturday along with their daughter Cathy. God sent them at just the right time, we laughed and prayed together, and were encouraged in our faith. God takes care of our every need, but sometimes He knows we need a hug or a laugh, so he sends His people. I wonder how many times in the past that someone popped into my mind, someone maybe in the hospital, someone sick, or someone I hadn't thought about in a long time, I wonder if was God prompting me to meet a need for Him! This really changes how we can think about visiting or calling someone, or writing a letter or card... instead of an interruption to our schedule, maybe it's an invitation and opportunity to be God's arms or laughter, to someone praying just for that need. Things that make you go "hmmm....".

Aloha from the desert,
Debbie and Dan