Weekend Sleepover

So, this past weekend, we had a sleepover....at beautiful Texas Children's Hospital....with all of her friends that we've gotten to know very well over the past year or so.   It all started Saturday morning when her "spitting up" turned into profuse vomiting after ever feeding. I was very worried and brought her to the pediatrician that morning, at which point we were immediately referred to Texas Children's Hospital.  By the time she was evaluated in the ER at TCH, she was very sick....very low energy, not interacting. At the ER, they collected labs including cultures of her blood, urine, and stools. She was found to be severely dehydrated. She had lost over 2 lb (11%) of her body weight, and her chemistries panel showed very high sodium and low potassium.  She immediately started on IV fluids and potassium as well as Zofran for the vomiting.  (click "read more")

She was admitted to the GI floor (12th floor) of TCH on Saturday night with the expectation that she would be discharged in the morning.  Her electrolytes were still abnormal though on Sunday morning, so her stay was extended until her sodium came down from 170 to a normal level of 140.  We are home now, and Elise seems to be doing much better.  

We are going back to TCH tomorrow for a repeat VCUG test in preparation for her surgery scheduled for Dec 4, which has been recommended to fix her kidney reflux issue. Elise has grade 4 kidney reflux and has had at least three urinary tract infections despite being on prophylactic antibiotics twice daily.  The transplant team has been worried about the post-transplant implications of this issue, and so the urologic surgery team was consulted. We met with the urologist/surgeon last week and came to a decision.  They will be doing the bilateral re-implant operation, which is the most complicated of the three options; however, it apparently has the highest success rate.  The surgeon explained to us that we don't want to find out that one of the "easier" procedures didn't work by her being post-liver transplant and developing a kidney infection, with immuno-supressents on board......we would have big problems.  So that's the plan.  They expect her recovery to be fairly easy, and it should have no effect on her listing for the liver transplant. Sot  that's that.  I will keep everyone updated prior to and following the surgery.

Again, thank you all for the wonderful prayers and support.  We appreciate it all so much!