Don't hold your breath

I am posting 2 times before lunch today. Beth and I just spoke with the liver surgeons and kidney doctor. His liver is still hanging in there...it is about the same. His INR today is 1.3 and bilirubin is 3.9. They said the slight increase in bilirubin is probably because of the blood they gave him yesterday. Praise God today for his liver. Thank him for this!!! I am still overwhelmed at how God has turned this liver around. His platelets are 90,000 which is the highest they have been in 2 years. Today he will be receiving the antirejection drip that can have some crazy side effects, low blood pressure and increased heart rate. Please pray that his body would not react to this medicine. Dr. Ruiz said that they will probably do another liver biopsy in a week. Beth and I just laughed at how they were like, oh yea, in a week we'll do that.

Dr. Ruiz and Dr. Koje will be rotating back to Baylor Dallas on Sunday, March 1st. They will be handing him off to the surgeons coming on from Baylor Dallas. We asked if potentially they could transfer Phil to Baylor Dallas because Justin and I live next door and Beth could live with us, and the pulmonologists there have more experience with Hepatopulmonary Syndrome just because they have more patient volume. They said that he is too unstable to transport to Dallas right now, but potentially in the future. The liver surgeons also mentioned those experimental medications after the trach, but all of the doctors are like maybe the trach will help and we won't have to go there. Pray that God would reverse this shunt in a miraculous way, and he wouldn't need any of these drugs. He is completely off of all blood pressure medications now. Praise God for this!! Praise God for the increase in the pressure of oxygen in his blood today!!! Like I said earlier, it was 77 today, up from 62. This is the highest it has been in over a week. I just wanted to thank God for this again!!! He is answering our prayers!!

His kidneys are doing better. They are having mechanical issues with his dialysis machines. They are now on the third one today. His poor nurse, Tammy, has had her hands full with these machines today. His is continuing to have good urine output. Thank God for this!!

Will keep you posted if anything changes today. We can't thank you enough for your continued prayers, and all that everyone is doing for us- wow! what a blessing. We are so grateful to God for being so faithful and giving us grace for each day, and sustaining us moment by moment.