Update from the docs

I just spoke with Dr. Ruiz and Dr. Koje and wanted to give everyone an update. God continues to heal Phil and we are so grateful!! Baby steps, but we are thankful. They reviewed the liver biopsy and it showed that regeneration is taking place. It did show some rejection, but they expected this to some degree since he has been off of the medications. Also, his INR was 1.3 today!!! This is the lowest it has been since his transplant. This indicates that some of the clotting function of the liver that we have been praying for is starting to work better. His bilirubin was down to 3.6 today from 4.4 yesterday which also indicates that the liver is doing better. They have inactivated him on the transplant list right now due to his lung function, but they can always reactivate him. Keep praying that he won't need another transplant, and God would continue to bring new life and regeneration to his liver and that his body won't reject it. They are going to start him on a new antirejection medication. This one can cause flu-like symptoms and after several doses you can get an allergic reaction to it. The have pretreated him with benadryl and tylenol and have medications to treat the side effects. They had to stop one of the other antirejection medicines because it can hurt the kidneys more. The steroids he is on for his lungs also helps with rejection of the liver as well. In all, he is on three antirejection medications.

His kidneys are back to the point of making urine but are still not filtering correctly. They are keeping his dialysis the same. They are no longer removing fluid but just filtering his blood. Contiune to pray for the kidneys to be able to filter the blood properly.

His lungs continue to hang in there. He is still at 100% FiO2 which is the most you can be on. In theory, his paO2 (pressure of oxygen in his blood) should be like 300, but his is only 65. They measure this when they do a blood gas. Ideally, they would like it in the 80-100 range. This morning it was 75, but this afternoon it went down to 65. They were going to turn down his oxygen to 90%, but when his paO2 came back at 65, they decided to keep him at 100% overnight. They will check his blood gas again in the morning. The oxygen saturation they measure on your finger is only an indirect measurement- his is still at 99-100% which is much better than yesterday, but they base everything on the blood gas. His chest x-ray still looks good and it is so confusing to the doctors and nurses as to what is going on. They keep saying, "This doesn't make sense." This is what we have prayed for. Dr. Ruiz told me that they don't really understand what is going on but there are several possibilites and they are covering for all of them. They are giving him the right antibiotics for infection. He also said it could have been bad "humors" that could have come from the dying parts of the liver that upset his lungs. I think he meant as parts of the liver were dying, toxins were released that aggravated things. Justin laughed when I told him this and said we should bring out some snake oil to go with this.
Continue to pray that God would breathe oxygen into Phil's body, and that He would heal his lungs. Specifically pray that his paO2 (pressure of oxygen in his blood) would increase while the FiO2 (percent of oxygen they give him) can decrease. Pray that God would touch Phil's lungs in a way that only He can.

Another encouraging thing is that his platelets were at 88,000. They haven't been this high in several years.

I met Robin, a security guard, in the waiting room. Pray for more opportunities to talk with her.

Phil's mom, Grandma, and I sang several songs over Phil. We sang "Blessed Assurance,"
"Amazing Grace," "Victory in Jesus," and "Because He Lives." It was a sweet time.

Continue to pray for God's name to be made great in this and for the greater work He is accomplishing during this time.