Mild Rejection

This week was supposed to be an easier week.  Daphne had a week off from transplant clinic.  Unfortunately, Monday started with her broviac not working.  The homecare nurses couldn’t get blood out of it.  So we were sent to the hospital on Monday.  First Daphne got a chest x-ray.  That showed that the broviac was still in place.  That meant there must have been a blood clot in it and so the broviac was treated with something to break down the clot.  That worked great. 

We were hoping that our broviac problems would be the only thing we would have to deal with that week.  Unfortunately, Tuesday we got a call that her liver enzymes were too high.  Daphne was to be admitted to hospital that day.  We were told she was probably dealing with infection or rejection.  They did start her on IV antibiotics immediately just in case it was infection.  We were sure glad her broviac was still working. 

The next day Daphne got a liver biopsy to see what was going on.  After how much we have been through with Daphne we were not that stressed about the actual procedure.  But it is still hard to hand Daphne over for any procedure.  The nurse assisting with the biopsy was so sweet to me though.  I really appreciated it.  And the anaesthetist was also so kind and sweet to Daphne.  I am constantly amazed at just how many good people there are at the Stollery. 

Not many people look this cute in a hospital gown! 

 The biopsy showed mild rejection.  Usually this is treated with high doses of steroids, but Daphne’s EBV count has been too high for that to be safe.  So instead they will be dealing with the rejection by increasing her dose of tacrolimus (her anti-rejection drug).  We are still waiting for more biopsy results to come back.  A test that they are still doing is one to see if the EBV virus has attacked her liver.  The Infectious disease doctor said that this was very unlikely though. 

This is a picture of Daphne with one of the transplant surgeons.  Dr. Bigam performed both of Daphne's transplant surgeries.  We will alway be incredibly grateful to him.  During her second transplant her heart stopped beating and Dr. Bigam did chest compressions to keep her alive with the help of Dr. Tang.  You would think she would be a little happier to see him though!  To be fair Daphne had just had her biopsy in this picture and hadn't eaten in 14 hours. 

On the plus side, her liver numbers have quickly improved since being admitted.  Perhaps there was a bit of an infection as well and the antibiotics have helped.  She will be on antibiotics until Sunday night.  Her tacrolimus dose is quite high at this point too.  She gets 5 mg twice a day.  Another plus is that we do get to go home on pass a bit every day since the biopsy.  She gets her IV antibiotics at noon, 8pm and 4am.   So we do spend the night, wait around until she has had her noon infusion and then go home until about 7:30pm.  It is nice to be home, even if it is just for a little bit.  I never miss a chance to leave on pass.  I feel a bit like a teenager trying to get out of class early when I ask the doctors to go home on pass. 

Rowan loves climbing in Daphne's hospital bed to play with Daphne.