jennej

It’s been awhile since I’ve had time to come back and give an update. My husband Josh began going through Mayo Jacksonville’s liver transplant evaluation protocol on July 19. He underwent most of the testing with few complications, with the exception of a major GI bleed where his hemoglobin got down to 4. The doctors said an older man would have gone into cardiac arrest. He currently holds the record for the fastest blood loss in 2010 at Mayo Jacksonville. Not exactly the kind of record you want your husband to hold!

The GI bleed was caused by an endoscopic sphincterotomy to insert bile duct stents during an ERCP. The good news is, despite the setback with the bleed, his bilirubin is down to 1.7 as of yesterday. And most of his liver numbers are close to normal. So the stents are definitely doing their job.

Josh is currently undergoing chemo and radiation (he’s on day 10 of 20). On Labor Day weekend, he had another setback when he was diagnosed with a blood infection on Friday and had to be hospitalized all weekend to receive IV antibiotics. The blood infection was most likely caused by the stents allowing gut bacteria to get up into the bile ducts. (Stents: the very definition of a blessing and a curse!) The doctors said Josh was classified as having sepsis, which is just as scary as the GI bleed. But luckily he responded well to the antibiotics and was released from the hospital on Sept. 6.

After he completes chemo and radiation, he is scheduled for an endoscopic ultrasound and another ERCP to replace the stents (I won’t lie