Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Not the best start to life post transplant!

This is not the start to our post-transplant lives we had hoped for! William has pneumonia in both lungs and has been really quite poorly. We thought for a while he may have needed support from some form of mechanical ventilation but, so far, he has held his own with the help of a fair whack of oxygen. Things are settling now and we are keeping everything crossed that he doesn't get any secondary infection or rejection.

Rejection is a big risk as the immune response he mounted to fight the infection is exactly what we are trying to suppress. There is a real threat that he could attack his new bowel as a 'side effect' from attacking his infection. One sign of this is to find sugar in his stoma fluid, as a result of the bowel not working and absorbing so effectively. William usually has no sugar or 1/4 percent. He is up to 1 percent today and 2 percent is indicative of rejection. I am hoping this is due to him being unwell rather than the start of rejection. Most small bowel transplant recipients experience some level of rejection in the first couple of years and I am confident we will get on top of any such opportunistic rejection if it does occur. What concerns me more is the fact he has some fluid in his abdominal cavity (ascites), something he has not had before. The team here feel it is secondary to the pneumonia and the fact he had poor renal function when he first got to the hospital. This has settled in his blood tests now but he was really thirsty and dehydrated in his bloods yet overloaded in terms of his fluid intake and has put on 2kgs of weight in 2 days (from 15-17 kg) This fluid had to go somewhere and can end up in places such as the abdominal cavity. This is very painful for him, as is the pneumonia, so the poor thing is in a bit of a state. He so deserves some happy and healthy times to enjoy his new tummy. I hope they are just around the corner and will be here to stay for a while.

11 comments:

Richard Weir said...

Oh the poor lamb, and poor you too, this must be such a blow to you.

Still hoping and praying that you've reached the tail end of this snake and William can start to recover.

Take care, hang in there!

Richard.

Molly said...

I'm sorry Wills is having such a tough time at the moment. I hope he doesn't have to stay in hospital too long so soon you can be all together as a family again to enjoy life with Wills' new tummy.

I hope Wills is soon feeling more comfortable.
Hugs,
Moll x x

Tinypoppet said...

hey lovely, I'm so sorry you guys have been knocked back a few steps - it's so frustrating when you just want to take a big step forward and get on with things. It took me months and months but when I finally got there....I haven't looked back since :)

Thinking of you xx

Rebecca said...

Oh Sarah hunny,

Poor William. I am so sorry to hear that he is so poorly. I am praying very hard that William will be able to beat this pneumonia without it triggering any rejection, and that he will be feeling more comfortable and more well very soon.

Lots of love and hugs,

Becky xxx

Jac said...

Thinking of you both xxx

Anonymous said...

Thinking of you both, I hope that theres no rejection to william's new tummy.

Thinking of you...
Love Emma x

meme said...

Thinking of you all,prayers are being said love Maria

suzie said...

Sending a big me to you & William (((HUG))). I'm thinking about you and praying for William to beat this and start climbing ladders.
xxx

The Fullmer's said...

We will continue to pray for William, you guys inspire us to keep going.

Aunty P said...

Thinking of you both. Hope William is soon on the mend - we have a play date!
lots of love
Px

Becky said...

Sorry to hear this - thinking of you all, all my love and hugs
-- Becky xx