Week 8

Well I am a little late on the week 8 update but lots of things were taking place at the end of the week. The overall status of the week was good, but Harrison did come down with a fever, diarrhea, and vomiting. He is now doing much better but please read on for the amazing turn of events that took place.

Heart- So if you remember in one of my earlier posts, I mentioned I found an article regarding how the TAPVR defect caused problems with the KASAI procedure in a baby who also had biliary atresia. I have been showing this to doctors since before Christmas to no avail. Well I decided to ask the cardiologist who diagnosed Harrison with the defect in utero some questions I had about the article. He mentioned there were some other issues with Harrison's heart that made them want to wait til he was bigger to do the surgery. So I began asking about future plans if the KASAI didn't work and we would be faced with the same dilemma as this baby in the article. He looked over the abstract and said that he could see where it had some good theory and he would like to look over it. I explained to him my concerns about waiting to do the surgery especially after seeing that the boy in the article was very similar to Harrison and his KASAI was failing but suddenly started working after having his heart repaired. So the dr wrote down the article and came back the next day to say that what he saw in the article had some validity and he would like to discuss it with the surgeon. I couldn't believe it. My Googling finally was being of some use. I also couldn't believe that doctors were finally listening to me.Too me this was true evidence of God's divine plan..I found this article which is now hopefully and prayerfully going to only help little Harrison in his journey. A couple of days later I was informed that after review of the article both cardiology and surgery felt it would be of benefit to go ahead and do Harrison's surgery sooner rather than later. On Friday I was told that he would have his surgery on Monday..with that being said..it got cancelled due to Emily getting sick which I will discuss later. So we are waiting now to see when Harrison's surgery will be rescheduled to.

Liver- On Monday, they ran his weekly liver function tests. His bilirubin had gone from 8 to 12 and his liver enzymes were elevated. His stool was still a pale yellow and he looked very jaundiced. I almost expected these type of results. I was even more disheartened because he was now off the TPN which can affect these numbers and he was still elevated and of course GI drs were still saying you have to give it time. Well..on Tues I noticed that Harrison's heart rate was higher than normal and he felt warm. I took his temp and it was higher than normal for him, but still in the normal range so no one else was concerned. But of course I knew something was up..it is God given mother's instinct. I also noticed his stool was watery and they said they would watch it. Later that evening, I kept calling and the nurse said he had spit up a couple of times and they were having to turn up his oxygen levels to a higher % just to keep his numbers good. Needless to say I was anxious to get there in the morning and push the doctors to investigate this further. When I got there, I touched him and he was warm..I took his temp and he was 99.9 so I told the nurse. She said that he got to 100 over nite so now I was waiting for the doctors to round because something was going on. The nurse went to a meeting and I went to pick Harrison up and he was burning up..I checked his temp again and it was 101.1. I immediately got another nurse who called the doctors. They came by and ordered all kinds of tests including ones for sepsis. It was quite nerve wracking. He was now dumping (diarrhea) almost half of his food at every feed which was not good. He was sucking on his pacifier like it was going out of style which was also unusual and of course no one was concerned. One of the tests ordered was another liver function test. It came back as elevated again..his bilirubin was 12 and now was 13 but his liver enzymes had come down some..I had already mentioned the possibility of cholangitis which can result from the KASAI and they called GI who had him started on an antibiotic just in case. Throughout the rest of the week the results for bacteria type infections were turning up negative which was good, but it meant probably cholangitis but maybe also a virus of some sort. There is no test for cholangitis. Since Harrison was dumping most of his food,they had to put in an IV to give him fluids (and after 12 hrs of this he stopped sucking on his pacifier like a crazy person..I tried to tell them it wasn't normal.) They also had to stop his feeds to try and help him get his bowels to stop dumping. So he went back on TPN. The most interesting part of this ordeal was when he started dumping his stool color was not a yellow brown..much closer to the color it should be. It changed so much that the cardiologist even mentioned it looked more like normal stool. Over the next couple of days the color of his stool remained the dark color and I was amazed but in wonder. NO one,not even GI had an explanation for the sudden change..well if you remember they were also looking at doing his heart surgery on Monday so they were running liver function tests for surgery so he got another one on Saturday. That makes three..Monday- Bilirubin was 12 and liver enzymes elevated, Wed- Bili was 13 and liver enzymes slightly lower, Saturday- Bili was..HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS..9 and liver enzymes were much lower than Wed....AND..his stool was starting to become more formed and...it was still staying DARK.. NO one has an explanation other than that there has to be some bile flowing. Praise God!

Oxygen- Harrison's oxygen had to be increased while he was sick, but he is now doing better and is able to have lower levels.

Therapy- Harrison has started to receive speech (for feeding), occupational therapy, and physical therapy. I was very excited to see all of these because they are so important to his growth and development. He struggles with tiring easily and feeding is quite the chore. It is hard to say what is the cause of any and all of these because there are so many factors.

Emily- Emily saw the endocrinologist and GI doctors this week. Her appts went well and endocrinology wants to do an ultrasound on her thyroid just to rule out any possible issues. Regarding the canceling of Harrison's surgery..Emily came down with an awful intestinal virus on Saturday evening that eventually led us to the ER for fear of dehydration. She had a fever of 103 and was sick for over 8hrs straight. Today she is doing much better, but we were concerned that with Harrison having such a big surgery that we could not give her the care she needed and the possibility of infecting him was also a concern so we called and told them the situation and they were very understanding and postponed surgery.

Today..Harrison is doing well, he no longer is on the TPN, he is back up to full feeds and he looks and feels much better. Emily is also doing much better. Praise God for all of these.

Prayer- Pray for Harrison that he will continue to thrive and develop. Pray for his strength in the face of the biggest surgery yet. Pray for wisdom and guidance in the doctors and nurses who care from him. Pray for the Emily as we continue to look into the thyroid issue. Pray that it is simply nothing as they suspect. Pray for our family that we will remain healthy and strong physically, spiritually, and mentally, as we prepare for Harrison's surgery in the upcoming weeks.

I also wanted to share some amazing insights on Harrison. These are just a reminders of the incredible aspects of life that only God could provide.

1. 75% of babies with chromosome disorders never make it to birth..Harrison did..Praise God!

2. I was told that 99.5% of people who have polysplenia have what they call an interrupted inferior vena cava. This can complicate liver transplants. Harrison has an intact inferior vena cava. He is the .5%. Praise God!

3. The article that led doctors to revisit the timing of Harrison's heart surgery states that there were only 3 cases documented of patients who have both biliary atresia and TAPVR. OF these 3 cases no patients lived past the age 3 due to complications of these issues. In the case of the boy being reported, doing his heart repair saved his life and was thriving a year later after having his heart repair. This piece of literature is now being used to educate doctors in Harrison's case. Harrison is rare, his condition his rare, but in God's eyes he knows every intricate path of his tiny body and he is beautifully and wonderfully made. Amazing how these small things have come together to have such importance. Truly the hand of God.

There are many more and I could go on..but I was just reminded of these this week.

So praise God for the miracle of Harrison's life. Praise for Emily's quick recovery in her illness, and praise for the care of the nurses in the NICU.

Again- Thank you to everyone who continues to share your support love and we are entering the 9th week of this journey. May you each be blessed for your kindness and grace you have shown to our family.