This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it.
Psalm 118:24

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Our Journey of Nathan's Transplant

Our Journey of Nathan's Transplant
We're Still Rejoicing!

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Strength

Its been stressful the last three days.  This is a challenging time, it is hard to not be fearful.  Our son is in Gods hands.  It is days like today that I need the strength of the Lord, I do not have the strength on my own.  

I can do all things through Christ 
who strengthens me.


Philippians 4:13



The situation is serious, and very delicate. Nathan's liver is not functioning properly.  He has a condition called veno-occlusive disorder.  It is a side effect of the chemotherapy. This condition is not very well understood, and there are not a lot of treatments.  They have made some corrections to medicines to be less stressful on his liver, and eliminated the IV nutrition and other medicines that are hard on his liver.  So far there is no damage to the liver tissue, it was caught at the early stages.


They are starting a trial drug today called Defribrotide. If this doesn't work, there's not a lot of other options.  This condition can be life threatening.  The bilirubin count is an indicator of the health of his liver function, and it has been increasing which isn't good.  The trial medication will be given every six hours for 21 days.  After the medicine is given, it is just a waiting game to see if Nathan's body will heal itself.  We could possibly see some improvement within 72 hours to one week.  

He had his first decreases in his bilirubin by a very small amount this morning, praise God!  Any decrease is a very good thing.  The fluid in his belly has also gone down, and he ate his first ounce of milk this afternoon.  This is all encouraging.  They will have to put him back on the IV nutrition tomorrow since he still is not eating regularly.
 
As far as the transplant goes, his counts are going up.  His ANC was 504 Monday, but they were down to 441 yesterday (which is normal), today his ANC is 851!  After three consecutive days at 500 the transplant is considered engrafted.  That could be Friday!
 
Please pray for Nathan:
1.  His liver to start functioning normally
2.  For the condition to not progress
3.  For his bilirubin count to go down
4.  To start eating.
 



Even on days like this when it is really hard, I am trying to be thankful, and praising God through the storm.  God has blessed our family with an incredibly compassionate, loving staff to help us get through this, and to encourage us.  I am so thankful for that.  I am proud of both of my boys and how strong they have been to go through this.  I am looking forward to the joyful times ahead.


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