We're Packing Our Bags!

Esther's fever broke sometime during the night. Hallelujah! Still no specific information about what caused the fever. All tests and cultures have been none conclusive. We will probably never know the cause and that is okay with me as long as Esther is better. Thankfully, her creatinine is back down to a great level.

We are packing our bags and waiting for our marching orders. Esther's IV needs to be pulled and some prescriptions need to be filled. Then we are busting out of this joint!!

Thank you for your prayers! We are praising God for such a short hospital stay!

Tuesday Update

Esther is doing better. She still has a fever, but it is not as high. She is sitting up more and was able to eat a little for dinner. The docs still don't know what is causing the fever, but they are treating her with antibiotics and an antiviral to cover all bases. To add insult to injury, Esther has a mouthful of canker sores, likely the result of being more immunosuppressed after the three big doses of prednisone.

This morning was hard for Esther when they needed to replace her IV and had difficulty getting a new one started. After three sticks and three false starts, they took a break and let her rest before coming back with a portable ultrasound machine. That helped them locate a deeper useable vein and they had success at last! Poor Esther is feeling a bit like a pin cushion. Because of her fistula in her left arm, only her right arm can be used for blood draws and IVs. She has had a lot of both of those since her transplant and her right arm is a little beat up. It doesn't help matters that she has tiny veins. And, of course, everything is harder when one feels awful and has a rip-roaring fever.

Saturday’s labs showed that Esther's creatinine was responding nicely to the prednisone blasts and that it had dropped back down closer to where the docs like to see it. Today her creatinine popped up a bit, but the docs think the elevation could be caused by the fever and slight dehydration from yesterday. Just to be sure, they set up a renal ultrasound for Esther this afternoon. I haven't heard the report yet, but I’m not expecting any bad news.

Because Esther is immunosuppressed, she always gets a single room when she is in the hospital. Yesterday when we arrived, they put her in a room that has two beds and I get to sleep in one of them! It is a real treat! At times like these, I'm especially thankful for small blessings.

Back in the Hospital

Esther is in the ER right now waiting to be moved up to the pediatric floor. She is quite sick with a fever. She just had a boatload of prednisone (500 mg for 3 days and 60 mg for the last two days) which has suppressed her immune system even more than usual making her vulnerable to any and every virus. The fact that she is mounting a fever after so much prednisone (which is an anti-inflammatory) is a concern. She is being admitted so the docs can run some tests, monitor her, and treat her.

Between labs, a biopsy, three prednisone infusions, and this fever, Esther has been in the hospital five of the last six days. This looks like it will be a little longer stay than the others. Are we having fun yet??

Biopsy Results

Biopsy results show that Esther has low grade rejection which is the best (or least worst?) of the bad possible scenarios. Tomorrow morning she'll go back to the emergency department for another 500 mg of methylprednisolone. They'll have to first put in an IV, which can be a challenge with Esther's limited access. The whole process will probably take about 3 hours. Esther and I will miss the Christmas caroling at the nursing home, but we should be able to make it to Hartland for Christmas dinner. Tom will already be there with the other children.

Esther will have a third dose of the methylprednisolone on Saturday. As much of a bummer as this is, we know that things could be much worse and are thankful that the rejection is not severe. This year's Christmas crisis seems easy compared to the Christmas two years ago that I spent in the ICU with a very sick Samuel.

The following blessing was written by a friend who also has a child with kidney disease. It expresses my sentiments exactly.

"Our hope for each of you this Christmas is that you get to experience the JOY that comes from knowing Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, the PEACE that comes from trusting Jesus Christ to comfort you when nothing else can, and the HOPE that comes from knowing only He can meet your every need."

Merry Christmas!

An Unfortunate Change of Plans

Esther and I are spending Christmas Eve here at the hospital. I brought her in this morning for a kidney biopsy after lab results yesterday showed a significant jump in her creatinine. The docs suspect that she is having some rejection and they need to know the type and the degree in order to treat her effectively. Praise God, the biopsy went without complication and she is resting comfortably in the recovery room.

Specific results from the biopsy won't be available until this evening, but we just got news that her creatinine is even higher this morning. Not good! The original plan was to wait until biopsy result were available before starting treatment. Given the continued rise in creatinine, they have decided to give her a blast of IV prednisone here and now. This is the same medication/procedure that we did the day before Thanksgiving when she had her first rejection episode. I'm not sure why we keep colliding with the holidays, but nevertheless, that's where we are.

Because today is a hospital holiday and staffing here is low, Esther is going to be admitted to the pediatric floor for a few hours so she can be monitored while she has her infusion. The expectation is that she'll be able to go home later this afternoon.

Beyond that, Plan A is to bring Esther back to the hospital tomorrow and the next day as an out-patient for two more blasts of IV prednisone. If tonight's pathology report shows that she has a higher grade of rejection, we will switch to Plan B which would be to admit her to the hospital for a series of treatments with a different medication. This would involve being an in-patient for a couple days. We'll just have to wait until this evening's report to find out which plan we'll be following.

Well, you can imagine Esther's disappointment! For the last 12 years, we have had a tradition of spending Christmas day with dear friends in Hartland, Vermont. Plan A means Esther spends part of Christmas Day in the hospital allowing for the possibility of a modified version of our tradition. Plan B means she spends all of Christmas and beyond in the hospital.

I’ll let you know what happens.

P.S. Merry Christmas!