Rejection

The doctors told the nurses last night that I needed to stop eating. There was a possibility that they would want to perform an ERCP. I’ve had them before, and it’s another one of the medical tests up their sleeve to check the flow of bile to see the liver is functioning properly. Most of my liver function profiles tested daily look really good. The bilirubin has been slowly on the increase, and Today was back to 16. The last few days were 8, 10, 13, and 15. So maybe it finally peaked after the cholangiogram like Logan’s research suggested might happen.

The doctors are understandably cautious, and ultimately decided not to do the ERCP – I was not looking forward to another procedure. Instead, they think there may be some slight rejection of the new liver going on. This would normally cause me to panic, but the doctor’s did a great job prepping for this potential. When you deal with transplants on a regular basis, one of the easiest things to take care of is what you already know. Rejection is known and for them, there’s an easy solution – more steroids, watch the anti-rejection numbers and everything should go according to plan.

That’s today’s plan- steroids and head off potential early signs of rejection, eat more calories and nutritional intake, and I even heard they’re going to remove my final drain from my abdomen. I’m really trying to time the pain meds so I don’t have to feel that weird sensation of removing a tube from your abdomen. And the doctor’s are adamant  it doesn’t hurt, “it’s only a little discomfort”. These are also the same doctors that I discussed nasal preference for feeding tubes and they choose ‘neither’ because they’ve never had the privilege of enjoying nasal feedings. They really need to experience more.