We saw Dad....

He ended up being in surgery until 11AM and the surgeons looked beat. We got to see him at around 12:30PM. It was interesting at first because in the past people are yellow after surgery from the iodine but dad was blue like a smurf. This is what they use now to wash you before surgery.

Things are relatively good- Dad is the ICU and has an amazing nurse who used to be a liver transplant coordinator. The nurse also is a medic in the army. So it turns out they left a sponge inside of Dad and he is going to have to go back to the OR tomorrow. The nurse says this is so rare as they count the sponges 3 times at least. They can see the sponge on the x-ray. They are waiting for Dad to stabilize more before taking him back and reopening him to get out the sponge. They have decided to keep Dad knocked out on the ventilator until after the second surgery which will hopefully be tomorrow. They also have him on some medication to keep his blood pressure up as he lost a lot of blood and the sedation medication both lower his blood pressure. Pray that his blood pressure will increase and they can take him off the blood pressure medication.

Right now they are watching dad's blood counts closely to make sure he is not bleeding. They say 30 percent of the time they have to take people back to the OR due to bleeding. Right now his counts are stable and they haven't given him any more blood. Please pray that his blood clots where it needs to and doesn't clot where it doesn't need to.

Please pray that his body continues to accept this new liver. The next 6 hours they are watching things very closely. Pray that his kidneys continue to function to get the fluid off of his body. Pray against infection as he is now on drugs that suppress his immune system.

At this point dad will be in the ICU until they get this sponge out of him. We continue to praise God for the opportunities we are having to talk with nurse Robert and the liver fellow who just moved here from Japan. God is continuing to sustain us and give us His peace that passes all understanding. We love you and will post more when we know it. It is tricky now because we can't use computers or cell phones in ICU. We get to be with him all day except for 6-9AM and 6-9PM.