Found the Family Resource Center!

Greetings!

How long have we been here, and how long did it take me to find the Family Resource Center with computers? Duh. Anyway, here is the latest news. Forgive me if I am repeating myself, as I do not remember the last time I updated.

On Sunday (I think), Lucy had another CT scan to determine why she was still so distended, despite the liter of fluid that they drained from her abdomen last week. Low and behold they found ANOTHER pocket of fluid that was under the initial big one. This one they believe has been there since surgery. SO, on Monday (maybe Tuesday - I honestly cannot put a day to it), we took another trip to Interventional Radiology, she was given a blood transfusion, and they drained as much of the remaining pocket of fluid as they could (about 100 cc's). the Doc said that much of the fluid in this pocket was "loculated", or divided into smaller compartments (a normal response of the body when foreign or infected fluid is in the body cavity - breaking it into smaller sections to deal with. how cool is that?). Because of this, there was a lot of gelatinous fluid that would not drain. As always, samples were sent to be tested and tested and tested. They also took out the drain on the right side of her abdomen, and put one in on the left side.

So far the tests have been negative for chylous fluid and bacteria and infection. Her belly is SLOWLY shrinking, and the hope is that her little body will start to absorb this stuff. She was also put back on TPN on Monday, but they are starting to wean her off of that so she will begin to eat. There is not much coming out of the drain, and what is coming out is clear and yellow - both good signs.

So, contrary to what I wrote in the last post, I will be able to update this blog! Thanks as always for the prayers and words of support. As you can imagine, we cannot wait to get home!

Love,
Mel and Lucy