I truly feel like getting Patrick a line through his interior jugular vein into his azygus vein was a miracle. An absolute answer to prayer.
So I was more than a little confused with the phone call I received from Patrick’s transplant nurse coordinator yesterday. In the morning when we talked, she was quite pleased with the ingenuity of Patrick’s line placement and thrilled to hear he was doing well. We discussed infection prevention strategies and his position on the transplant list.
Then she called me back in the afternoon. She’d updated one of the transplant surgeons. And, as it turns out, in order to perform an intestinal transplant surgery, you have to have a central line in the superior vena cava. It can’t be in the azygus vein. The logistics don’t work.
They asked us to fly Patrick there next week to let their specialists see if they can solve the problem. Until it is resolved, Patrick has been put on hold on the transplant list.
At this point, other than knowing that the insurance company has approved the trip, that is all we know. We have about three dozen questions that we don’t know the answers to.
Despite the news, Patrick is doing great. Infection free and bacterial overgrowth at a minimum, he is feeling great. He ate at all three meals and had several snacks today, too. I swear he was eating once an hour. He’s napping well. He’s playing happily. He is very confused about why mommy is in a bad mood.
Mommy is doing her best not to be overcome by her tendency towards catastrophic thinking.
At least I have plenty of distractions. Hospital stay followed by a week of travel followed by another hospital stay is not the way to stay on top of your housework. And I’m nowhere near ready for Patrick to go back to school, even, or perhaps especially, if we might miss the first day next week.
We are hoping to get some answers soon.
Thank you for your prayers. I know they’re helping. If you don’t mind, we could really still use them for a little while.
Patrick Hoopes 