One Week Update: 4/21

After agreeing to a sleeping pill on Sunday night, I slept uninterrupted for 7 hours and woke a changed woman. When the doctors did their rounds I gave them a big smile, and they said, “You’re ready. You need your one week ultrasound, so let’s do that and then we’ll take a look and see about getting you home.”

Meanwhile, down the hall Derek was facing new struggles. I went down to see him and ran into his surgeon in the hallway. “There’s a problem. Maybe an infection. He’s in ultrasound, I’ll come find you.” My sister and I chatted with Derek’s mom for a while and then headed back to my room to wait for the ultrasound reports to return. Derek’s surgeon showed up in my room soon after and told me the news.

“The artery is collapsed again. The graft appears to be failing. It doesn’t mean it won’t recover, but we need to be proactive.” He started by assuring me that my sacrifice had not been in vain. My liver was truly good but is having trouble keeping up with Derek. “We’re moving him to the top of the transplant list. He is now listed as a number one priority for transplant and I will find him the best possible liver I can.”

Derek I knew this was a possibility all along. I wouldn’t have agreed to be his donor if getting him a new liver wouldn’t be the contingency for my liver not working out. We wanted this to be the perfect story: girl meets boy, boy falls in love with girl, their livers meet and they’re a perfect match. Life is not always perfect. But the silver lining is that he has another chance, a really good chance, to get a full sized liver that will be able to keep up with him.

I’ll write more tomorrow and give you my unscientific explanation of all of this then, but in the meantime we have a couple of requests.

• Now more than ever, it’s so important that everyone is signed up to be an organ donor. Please tell your friends and family.
• Please save your visits to Derek until later, when he’s home from the hospital. Derek is understandably exhausted, and it takes a lot of energy for him to visit with people. He knows you are all thinking of him, and will likely be active on the blog!
• Please feel free to email him your happy, silly thoughts. He is definitely reading them.

I am home now with my sister trying to get better fast so I can be strong for my unbelievably amazing husband. I am currently operating at about the speed of a limp 90 year old. I will want and need visitors, but I will let you know when, I promise. Feel free to reach out to me with emails and questions. I will tell you whatever you want to know, that I know, about Derek’s condition.

As always, thank you all for your love and support. We ask that you cross all your fingers and toes that Derek receives a life saving gift very soon.