Back to the OR today

Hi Everyone. Sorry it has taken us so long to post. It ended up being a very long afternoon and night. While we are in the ICU we are unable to use the computer or cell phones so sorry if communication has been sparse. Phil is currently stable but he is still a very sick man. His surgery ended up taking 12 hours and during the surgery he was put on a lot of medications to maintain his blood pressure. They are still having to use medications to keep his blood pressure up. Last night they were able to take him off one of the medications that clamps down on your kidneys and intestines but they had to start 2 new ones. They think the reason his blood pressure is so low is because he was out for so long during the surgery and the anesthesia can cause this. Please pray that his body would be able to maintain a normal blood pressure WITHOUT medications. These medications cause other vessels to clamp that we don't want to.

Also, his urine output has decreased since the surgery to a point where they are going to start dialysis today. They also believe that his kidneys are just in shock from the very long surgery. They are usually the first organ the body shuts down to conserve blood. They have tried various methods but so far nothing is working. He has an extra 15 liters of fluid on him right now because he is not getting rid of it. He is kind of puffy. So today they are going to start him on dialysis. They hope that in 2-3 days his kidneys should "wake-up" from the surgery and will return to normal. Please pray that his kidneys would start to work and make urine again.

Please pray for his new liver. Right now Phil is having some issues with not clotting. They are watching some blood tests that were elevated but are starting to slightly go in the right direction so this is a good thing. They say sometimes it takes minutes to days to weeks for a new liver to start working. They are calling it shock liver because it's "ischemic" time was 12 hours. This is time from which it was harvested to the time it was hooked up again in Phil. Usually the upper limit of normal is 9 hours. They hope this will also resolve in the next few days. Pray that his body would accept this liver as his own and would not reject it.

Phil is also currently still on the ventilator. He has been ever since his surgery. They teased us because they were in the process of waking him up which almost did and then decided to put him back out so that he wouldn't have extra stress on his body. Please pray against any sort of infection as he now is on immune suppresant drugs.

We weren't aware, but our nurse, John, last night who was awesome told Melanie that what is happening to Phil currently is not abnormal to him. He said about 30% of liver transplants need dialysis and about 30% need to be on a ventilator for longer.

We just found out that they are taking Phil back to the OR at 8:30AM to remove the infamous sponge that they left and to check out things and make sure they look OK. They are also going to place a device so that they can start dialysis today.

At this time, he will be in the ICU for at least a few more days. We are permitted in all day except from 6-9am and 6-9pm. It is located on the second floor of the A Building.

Melanie's grandparents brought their motorhome and parked it in the parking lot of the hospital. The police were so accomodating and helped cone off a spot. It has been great. We have a place to shower and snooze. We also have a refrigerator. It is such a big blessing. We are trying to take turns sleeping.

Honestly, we are all really exhausted and emotionally drained. Thank you for your continued prayers, support, and encouragement. Will keep you posted.