Still in the Hospital

Alan is still in the hospital and the roller coaster ride continues. He sounded good this morning and had a good night. The boys are here so we're all going in shortly -- hopefully to visit in the garden.

He spent most of Thursday waiting for scans or ultrasound. One scan called the "hida scan" took several hours to complete as picture images are taken in very tightly timed intervals throughout an hour and then periodically afterwards. That was done to see what the liver looked like and if they could determine whether there were any leaks or complications with it. This scan is done in Nuclear Medicine.

The ultrasound was done during the gap in picture taking. The technician was very thorough. Four times during this 20 - 30 minute period you had another technician, transport, or transplant surgeon stop in to see how things were going.

The results from these two tests were good indicating nothing unusual was taking place.

Alan had a liver biopsy on Friday and the results came back yesterday. They were checking again to see if they could pinpoint any areas of concern which would explain his fluctuation in numbers.

The purpose for continual labs is to detect the positive and/or negative before there is a major issue. Labs on Wednesday and Thursday were not where they would like them to be which was the reason for the testing on Thursday and Friday.

Most recent labs were trending in the right direction. He may or may not have another liver biopsy this coming week. We're hoping not.

He'll be on a low fat diet initially -- until one of his drains is totally cleared up. That appeared better this morning.