Wow!  What a wirlwind these past few days have been! Let me catch everyone up to speed with what has happened:

Tuesday at 11:48am we were getting ready to head out the door to meet some friends at Chili’s for lunch when I got a call from our transplant coordinator.  She asked how Annabelle was feeling and stated that they had a potential liver for Annabelle. We didn’t start loading up the car just yet because she had to check wth several doctors to see if Annabelle was well enough for surgery despite having strep throat on Sunday.  We waited a VERY long 30 minutes to get the call back stating to pack up and head up to Pittsburgh right away.  Even though she had strep the doctors decided she had enough antibotic in her system to kill it; plus she would be on many anti-viral and antibotic drugs post-transplant to help prevent infection.  They initially told us that surgery would take place at 7pm so I packed the car as quickly as I could and my mom and I headed for Pittsburg around 1:45pm.  Mike coordinated air travel with the medical flight service we had in place, so I gave Annabelle a big hug and shed a few tears before leaving (knowing that I may not see her before she went into surgery).  To save time a good friend picked up Mike and Annabelle and took them to the airport around 2:30pm.  They went to a special part of PTI where private jets go and their plane took off around 3:40pm.  Mike said the flight took no time at all and when they landed there was an ambulance there waiting for them.  What would normally take 45 mintues only took about 20 minutes via ambulance (Mike said I could have never done that ride because even he was getting car sick in the back of the ambulance!).  They arrived to the hospital around 5:30pm and started running tests on Annabelle.  My mom and I didn’t get there until around 8:15pm even though we only stopped once to quickly get gas (never has that drive felt longer).    Luckily, I was able to see her prior to surgery because it kept getting pushed back since they had not gotten the donor liver. 

We finally took Annabelle to the sugery floor around 10:30pm.  This was very entertaining because they gave her some sedation that made her start giggling immediately…it was so cute.  From that point we left her with the doctors and in God’s hands.   At that time we proceeded to get settled in our apartment (joined to the hospital), took showers, and rested for a couple of hours.  At 12:30am the nurse called to say that they started surgery around midnight.   By 2am Mike’s parents had arrived (they were sitting on the beach when we called and they had to drive to Kannapolis from the beach THEN drive to Pittsburgh).  At that point we waited in the surgery waiting area and got our next call at 5:30am stating they had everything ready but were just waiting for the liver to get there.  We don’t know much information about the donor other than the liver came from a hospital in Philedelphia and that donor was in his or her 20’s.

One of the surgeons came in aroun 7:30am stating that her new liver was in and they just had a few more things to do like check veins and close her up.  Around 9:30am one of the other surgeons came to tell us surgery was over and that everything went really really well.  The liver was looking beautiful and already producing bile, which is a VERY good sign.  

We had to wait a few more hours before she got settled in the PICU but we were finally able to see her around 12:30pm.  She was definitely swollen and all tubed up, but Mike and I agree that she looked much worse when she was on diaylsis at 4 days old.   She was sedated yesterday but did open her eyes every so often.  All of her numbers are moving in the right direction.  Her ammonia did get up to 122 but has since come down to 86 as of this morning.  This is normal due to all the stress on her body but as her liver starts working more those ammonia levels should come down.

The plan for today is to try to extubate her (take out her breathing tube).   This is tricky because they have to ween her sedation so she can breathe on her own.  However, if she gets too agitated then they have to sedate her.  So the goal is to keep her comfortable and non-agitated because she’ll feel much better when that tube comes out.  Plus the longer the tube stays in then the greater chance of infection.

We love all of you and have read all of your comments, texts, and emails (it’s just been so many that we cannot respond to all of them).  We’ll try to update a little each day to keep everyone posted. 🙂

Prayer Requests:

1.) Pray for the donor’s family.  Although we are so excited for Annabelle, we know this opportunity comes at a great cost.  What a great sacfrice this person made by being an organ donor so that others could have life.  

2.) Pray that extubation would happen TODAY.

3.) Pray for Annabelle to be comfortable and with minimal pain.

4.) Pray for all the teams involved in her care – her team is extensive but amazing! We have been SO impressed with her care so far and we have NO doubt we brought her to the right place.

5.) Pray for no complicatons (no rejection, no clotting, no infections, etc.)  This first week is crucial!

6.) Pray that her liver would continue to work well and do it’s job; pray for ammonia levels to decline.

7.) Pray for strength and courage for each day for me and Mike, and that God would sustain us in the days/weeks/months ahead.