Day 24

We're on day 24 of our journey here at Children's Medical Center... Time passes by in an entirely different way in the CICU. The days seem exceedingly long and slow, but they pass so quickly that I can look up and not know where the hours went. It's such a strange feeling, but common in the ICU, I would guess. Right now, we're waiting for them to take Holden to the cath lab. He should have been in an hour or two ago, but the procedure before his is taking a little longer. They haven't moved as quickly on today's part of the process, so I'm no longer expecting to get him listed as a transplant candidate by the end of the day... Now we can just hope it's done by the end of the week. He still has to have so many tests, scans, labs, etc done... The neurologist should be in sometime today as well, but we haven't seen anyone yet. We "passed" all of the interviews and meetings yesterday, and we're ready to get this show on the road. After draining all the fluid off of him yesterday, he looks like a completely different kid today. He's looked like a bloated bullfrog for the past few weeks, and it's oddly relieving to see him looking like my baby again, even with all of his tubes. He was negative on his fluids by 1200 for the past 24 hours... That is over a liter of fluid! Now that his kidneys aren't under so much pressure, they've started working again, and he's peeing like crazy too. Liquid gold, as it's known around here. :) His kidney numbers are looking better today, which is good news for listing him. His BUN is at 36 (down from 59), and his creatinine is at 0.6 (down from 0.9). He seems to be a little more comfortable too, which makes me really happy. It broke my heart watching him suffer day in and day out, and not be able to do anything to take the pain away. That's one thing I'm thankful for this week. Another thing I'm thankful for is the outpouring of love and support we've received from friends, family and even strangers. I can't say this enough... We are immeasurably thankful for every single prayer. I am horrible about responding to individual people... I try, but I never seem to have enough time. Regardless, we appreciate each and every one of you who pray for and support my tough little man.

Well, Susan (the transplant coordinator) just came in here and told us that she's putting him on the list right now. So it's official... I'm not sure if I'm happy or terrified, but I'm holding fast to the belief that everything will happen at the right time for him. As someone recently said to me, "God is in the miracle business." I like that. :)