Wednesday brought another complication. Theo's morning labs came back with a significantly higher creatinine (measure of kidney function) than Tuesday, suggesting deteriorating kidney function. Around 10 am, it was retested to make sure that the morning value was not an error. The retest showed an even higher level. His hemoglobin was also low, and potassium high. Another kidney ultrasound was ordered.
Shortly before lunch, Nick and I were informed that the ultrasound showed a collection of blood (called a hemotoma) around the kidney. The nephrologists, surgeons, ICU doctors and radiologists decided that Theo needed to go back to the OR.
For the fourth time in 3 weeks, Theo had an open-abdomen surgery. (I joked that instead of sowing him back up, they should put a zipper.). It sounds like this surgery may have saved Theo's transplanted kidney, Dubya. The hematoma around the kidney was putting immense pressure on it, and the surgeon believes that if we waited another day then Dubya would not have survived.
In addition to removing the hematoma, the surgeon did another kidney biopsy. Please pray that the results do not show acute rejection. We'll know more tomorrow. We also had the surgeon convert Theo's g-tube into a GJ-tube, so hopefully his nutrition will improve.
Theo is back in his room in the PICU, on a ventilator, and not terribly comfortable. His blood pressure is low again, so he just got another transfusion. We are hoping that the blood and fluids will stabilize him, and that he is not dealing with more problems like internal bleeding.
I am sure you can imagine that it has been a hard day. Poor Theo. We are so glad to have a great team of people around Theo, and prayers from all over the country.
No comments:
Post a Comment