"At the end of the day..."

...all that matters is if the gut works. That's the goal. A functional gut, and it looks to me like its working pretty darn good. She's more than 3/4 of the way there. We will just have to wait and see what pathology tells us. If there is acute rejection then we treat it."

That's the word from rounds this morning. What does it mean? I'm not sure except that we are still waiting on pathology to develop our plan. Acute rejection has to be treated. Chronic rejection basically tell us the gut doesn't work. It can't tolerate any feedings and the patient goes back to relying on TPN for their nutrition. Then the side effects(choleostasis of the liver, or liver failure) starts to set in and the patient must be re-listed for transplant. That is the explanation I was given this morning. So does she have chronic or acute? Well, it seems to us by looking over at her feeding pump and seeing the number on 60ccs of feeds with the goal being 80ccs that the gut is working to some extent. Not perfectly according to the amount of output she is having in her ostomy, but clearly working. I would think that is encouraging.

Still the biopsy results will send us down the path we are going to have to travel and where that path will be traveled at this time looks to be Omaha, Nebraska unless we can all sit down and come to some type of compromise.

I'm going to concentrate my energy on being thankful for a semi-functioning gut because before transplant we didn't even have that. Ash is sleeping peacefully at this time. She's had an uncomfortable morning with lots and lots of cramping, but we are hoping it was all stirred up from the scope. I'm going to run down stairs while she's resting and grab a cup of soup for lunch. The snow is coming down outside our windows and the Christmas carols are playing. I'm working on some "decorations" for her room from some old scrap booking papers I found left inside the front pocket of my suitcase. What a treasure! One of the nurses brought in some ribbon and some brightly colored glass ornaments that she wasn't using this year and another nurse is bringing us a Christmas tree. I'm going to see what kind of magic I can make for her while she sleeps.

Hope your day is blessed with magical holiday moments. Trish