Jack is healing beautifully from his liver transplant on April 14th. Doctors are amazed by his resilience, considering the severe complexities of the procedure. He only needed minimal pain management and by day 3 post-op, he was no longer on any pain medications. He has been up and active, and already so engaging in physical and occupational therapies to help aid in a successful recovery. He is still in the Pediatric Intensive Care Unit (PICU) and will remain there until further notice. We are expecting him to remain in the hospital for a feed more weeks. He has quickly become a favorite of his nurses and medical teams because of his “contagious smile” despite everything he has gone though. He has handled his recovery thus far like the warrior he is, and we are so proud of how strong he has remained during this entire process!
Some of you may have been wondering when his next surgery would be, since I mentioned during my last update that his neurosurgical team was planning a brain surgery for Jack’s shunt re-internalization soon. Well, that procedure was temporarily postponed and should hopefully happen early next week. His neurosurgery and transplant teams wanted to give his body more time to recover before making him undergo another serious procedure.
Since making that decision, we also found another unexpected health-related discovery just a few days ago: Jackson is having underlying kidney issues and thus needs an additional surgery. That puts us at surgeries #9 and #10 for our little boy.
Jackson actually just completed surgery #9 this afternoon - an open pyeloplasty - and has safely returned back to his room in the PICU. We noticed after completing a renal scan earlier this week that his right kidney is not properly draining fluids, thus causing an enlargement of his kidney due to a ureter obstruction. This enlargement had apparently been noticeable in previously completed scans over the past few months but had gone unnoticed until recently. We are just so thankful for the amazing doctors here at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital and their attention to detail. This surgery will hopefully clear the obstruction in his kidney so that it can properly function in the future with minimal issues.
We hated to have to put him through yet another surgery, with an additional brain procedure next week, but it had to be done.
Jeremy and I are hanging in there throughout all of this and trying our best to remain positive for Jack. COVID-19 is still preventing both of us from being at the hospital together with Jack, so it has definitely been a challenge to remain united even when we are not able to be in each other’s presence. So far we have still been taking turns being at the hospital with Jack and exchanging quick hugs in passing for the past 3 weeks. Jeremy is currently at the hospital with Jackson and supporting him with his post-op recovery today. While I am missing both of them desperately and struggling not being able to see my baby after such an unexpected, invasive procedure, Jeremy does an amazing job standing in the gap for the both of us. I always look forward to our family FaceTime chats while I am away, and today will be no different.
Please continue to pray for sweet Jackson as he recovers from this surgery and prepares for his neuro/brain surgery next week. All of this is a lot for such a little boy to handle, but if anyone can do it, our Jack can! #FightLikeJack
