Sunday Update

After 40 hours of fever, Esther turned a corner last night and is doing better today. She is weak and continues to have diarrhea but, hopefully, the worst is over. The transplant surgeon stopped in earlier and is pleased with her lab results from this morning, but is still cautious and withholding judgment until today’s results become a trend and not just a one-time blip.

We are still waiting for the results from many lab tests and cultures but, in the meantime, the docs have been treating Esther as if she had some of these things, just in case. There are a couple pathogens that the doctors were able to rule out. One of those was C. diff (Clostridium difficile). Praise God! Samuel has had it and it is nasty! While the whole pediatric floor is “closed” due to H1N1 and caregivers are supposed to be the only visitors, they imposed extra handling precautions on Esther for a day while they waited for the results of the C. diff test. Again, we are very relieved that she doesn’t have it and that she’s been released from her “isolation”.

Esther is on four different immunosuppressant drugs. In addition, she was blasted over Christmas with IV steroids after biopsy results showed that her body was trying to reject the kidney. These extra drugs did their job of stomping all over her immune system and stopping the rejection, but her now highly immunosuppressed state has made her vulnerable to opportunistic pathogens. To give her body some chance of fighting off this illness itself and to lower some drug levels that were too high as a result of altered absorption, the doctors have temporarily stopped one of her immunosuppressant drugs and reduced the dosage of two others. At this point, we don’t know if it is the medications that they have given, the medications that they haven’t given, or just time and hydration that have made the difference for Esther. It is too early to tell if her improvement is “real”, as they say. More time, more lab results, more fluids, more prayers are all needed.