Bilirubin Blues: Jordan's Surgery and Recovery

After the events of Tuesday night Jordan is recovering very well and in a much better state. Wednesday was a long day. He had to wait most of the day for the doctors to coordinate his transportation and surgery downtown at IU University. He recalls it being miserable; just waiting in bed for them to transport him. They wanted to do another endoscopy with the doctor’s downtown with equipment that IU North did not have to find a permanent solution to stop the bleeding.

After being taken down in an ambulance and scanned into the new hospital they started the procedure. They found 4 varice enlarged veins, on his esophagus that were bleeding into his stomach. So they placed 4 bands around them to stop the bleeding. From my understanding once the swelling and pressure goes down on the varice the bands will denigrate and fall off. He will still need a follow up endoscopy in 4 weeks to make sure everything is healing and there is no more bleeding or ruptured veins.

Once this procedure was done he was in recovery only long enough for them to call an ambulance and take him back to IU North. Remember the bed crisis? I am so thankful that he was taken back to Carmel because being 5 minutes away is a huge blessing and had taken away a lot of stress.

His parents and sister were able to be with him during his transportation downtown and back which was a relief to me knowing that they were with him. They filled me in on what the doctor’s said after his procedure.

They were positive that if Jordan will do exactly what they tell him to do; attend all the follow up appointments and take all the medications and meet with the liver specialist, that he could be a candidate for a liver transplant or some type of procedure in the not so distant future.

Today, Thursday March 10^th, Jordan was feeling much better. He was kept on the intensive care unit on the 4^th floor all day only to monitor him after his surgery. He is on a clear liquids diet now, i.e. Jell-O, chicken broth and popsicles, instead of swabs. All Jordan could have after surgery on Wednesday night were these swab things. Basically he would dip a sponge in water and suck on it. They ordered this because the surgery was so invasive that he needed to use this method until his stomach could handle more.

I was very encouraged to see his progress from last night to tonight. It was a complete turnaround. He was up and walking and much more alert and talkative than he had been all week. So tonight he was moved back to progressive care on the 3^rd floor from the intensive care unit on the 4^th floor.

As he was packing up his stuff to go downstairs the nurse was joking with him that he better not come back to visit. By the way, I just wanted to mention that during both our stays we have had great nurses. They truly do amazing work and I am so thankful that these people choose to do it everyday.

They want to keep monitoring Jordan tomorrow and we will hopefully have him home by Saturday. I want to thank everyone for their support during this time; it has truly meant a lot to Jordan and I to know that there are people praying for us.