Rejection

Its a word I haven't thought much about in over two years now.  To hear it this week has been a little shocking.  I'm not sure what to say about it.  Other than it is the nature of transplants.  Its a world we jumped into head first after being counseled it was the only option left.  Sometimes I wonder if there was another way and that if we had been given a little more time we might have found it.  The wondering doesn't do us any good.  We are a transplant family.  Once we chose this route it forever made us one.

So, after making several phone calls back and forth and after adding up all the symptoms and lab results it was decided that we need to treat Ashley Kate for a case of mild rejection.

A liver biopsy was discussed, but thankfully our transplant surgeon decided she didn't want to put Ash through the pain and risk of the procedure. It is extremely invasive and we would have had to put her in the hospital.   Instead she wrote orders for a course of treatment and we began it last night.

Ashley Kate is Ashley Kate.  She has not acted sick one little bit.  She doesn't feel bad.  She's happy.  She's funny.  She's ornery.  She's wonderful.  I'm so thankful for that.  So thankful on days like this that she doesn't understand so much of her world.  She's not afraid.  She's not concerned.  She's just giggly and silly.

At this point we are all assuming she is experiencing mild rejection of her liver.  She has never had any problems with rejecting this liver.  This is a new situation for us to find ourselves in.  She had several,several bouts of rejection of her small bowel. Ultimately it had to be removed.

Its hard to be afraid of this situation when I've got this giggling 7 year old little girl on my lap:)