Going Home?

We've had quite a few people asking if we know when we're going to be coming home and the answer is: WE DON'T KNOW. And we wont know until that day comes. They are talking about sending us home sometime this week but it all depends on Peanut. Things are looking really good and if things stay that way then there is a great possibility that we'll come home this week but Peanut usually likes to surprise us with new things the day before they're thinking about sending us home. So we'll just have to wait and see.

She has been really talkative lately. She's laughing a lot more and it just melts my heart every time she does! She definitely has her own will and personality and it's so fun to see more of it coming out every day. We are so very grateful to have her in our lives and will forever cherish every minute that we have with her.

Little Peanut

Our friend Lydia surprised us one night about a week ago with a present for Peanut. She said she was shopping, saw this shirt and just couldn't pass it up. It is darling! And absolutely perfect for our little peanut! Thanks Lydia!





We have a ton of pictures of her in the shirt and I couldn't choose just one so you get four!

Some Milestones

Peanut has hit some nice milestones the last little while. We have been out of the ICU for a while and she likes her new room. We get to go on walks now and again around the unit and she loves that. She also got to have solid food on Sunday! At first I think she thought it was kind of weird but she loves it now. Shes had applesauce and pineapple and her formula. She wasn't to fond of the formula at first but she likes it now. She had a liver biopsy today as well. We haven't got all the results back yet but the liver looks great! It's getting good blood flow and there aren't any signs of rejection. Some of the liver numbers are going up very slowly. They would rather them stay low so the are trying to figure out why they are going up little by little. But yea Mak and I are doing great. I think that I am officially sick of the cafeteria food now. I can't complain though because it's actually really nice. Ha I forgot to mention that now that she is eating solid foods again the changing of dippers has become less fun. Thanks for all the support everyone.

Easter

The Easter bunny paid a visit to the hospital and brought Peanut a basket full of candies that she can't eat! Haha.

She did enjoy TRYING to eat everything though.

Our chubby cheeked peanut

The docters say that they're "TPN cheeks" so we'll have to see if they go away

We had a good Easter but we're excited for next year when she might actually be able to enjoy it!

Immunocompromised Services Unit

Peanut was transfered at about 3 yesterday afternoon! Happy day! We're now in the ICS unit where you HAVE to wash your hands before you come into the unit and where all the doors are ALWAYS closed because they have special air systems that only allow air to leave the room and not come in. It's pretty cool - just loud. It's a really nice unit too. They have a room specially for parents where you can do laundry, store food, hangout, etc. It's not too bad. If you have to live at the hospital this would be where to stay. My only addition would be to have the couch/bed that we had while on the surgical unit so that Luke and I could both stay here.

She's been doing a lot better and I actually got some laughs out of her yesterday and today - too cute! It's all a pretty slow process but she's still headed in the right direction which is all that matters!

Our Time Fillers . . .

Since we've pretty much been living at the hospital for the past five months we've had to find stuff to fill all our spare time (something that's non-exestent at home). The first time we were here I finished reading the Twilight series. The next couple of times I read 5 volumes of The Work and the Glory. When I got sick of it I went back to reading Twilight again until my sister-in-law told me about:


It's great! If any of you out there are trying to find a book to read until Breaking Dawn comes out, or are just looking for a good read, I suggest reading this series. I just finished Uglies today and can't wait until my sister brings me the next two (Pretties and Specials) on Tuesday! Then I guess there's a fourth one that just came out (Extras) but I don't know where to find it for free since it's not at the U of U's library. Of course Luke makes fun of these books just as much as he makes fun of the vampire books. So for all you out there who shares his opinion/taste then check out:


I guess there's like 12 of them not including the prolouge which is a book in itself. Crazy! And it's teeny tiny writing! I'm sure it'll take him the rest of his life to read them all! So I'll just continue to read the "quick reads" that I like and he can continue to make fun of them.

Still in the PICU

Yep we're still here. She's doing a lot better but there has been one thing after another that has prevented them from sending us to the floor. They keep saying maybe/probably tomorrow but then when tomorrow comes there's something else. So, they have said possibly tomorrow but we've decided not to expect it.

Peanut was all play and smiles last night and it was sooo good to see. I love her smiles so much and it's always so comforting to see the first smile after a sick infested drought.

Quick Update

Peanut's doing just fine. We were hoping to leave the ICU today but she's got a little bit of fluid in her lungs so they want to get that cleared out before they send her to the floor. We're looking at MAYBE tomorrow but it will mostly depend on what her chest x-ray shows in the morning. Overall, we're traveling the road to recovery pretty smoothly right now.

Back to the OR

Peanut headed back to the OR last night around 7:30 but everything is okay. There was actually some happy news afterwards.

Here's the story . . .

She had been acting really uncomfortable and just not normal but it was hard to tell for sure what it was. She had been draining bile from one of her JP drains but the doctors were just watching it because a lot of the time bile leaks can correct themselves. Well all of a sudden, yesterday around 5:30 I noticed that both JP drains were now draining the same color of stuff so the nurse had the doctor come look at it and he notified the surgery team. By the time someone from surgery came to look at it she was draining "particles." When her surgeon looked at it he decided that we should take her to the OR to open her up and look around. They had scheduled a time earlier in the day "just in case" but she was doing pretty good at the time so they canceled it. So we had lost our slot in the OR. Dr. Scaife watched her and her vitals and thought about it for a few minutes and then decided to declare it an emergency and they took her back less than an hour later. Around 10:30 Dr. Book came out to tell us the good news: Her liver looks great! It's nice and pink and has a really good texture. The problem and the reason it was good that they didn't wait to do the surgery was that there was a hole in her colon and there was poop all through out her belly. They cleaned it out and sewed the hole shut. She also had a small bile leak from the cut surface of her liver which they fixed. The surgeons seem to think that this will be the biggest bump in the road and, even though there will probably be more, she's headed in the right direction.

I finally got some pictures uploaded to my computer . . .

A couple of days before transplant with "Willa" (her big belly)

Smiling for the grandparents while waiting to go to surgery

Heading down to the OR

Saying good-bye

Post transplant with all the tubes and cords


First bath post-transplant


First time out of bed - we both LOVE to cuddle!

She does have another breathing tube but we're hoping to get that out sometime today. We'll also have another rough couple of days trying to get her back on track and rid of the infection but we are headed in the right direction and she's a fighter!

Just a little update . . .

Some peoples have been complaining that we haven't given any updates on Peanut but there haven't really been any to give. She's still in the intensive care unit and they're still just trying to get everything back on track. It's just the game of "we give her this for this but then that causes this so we give her this to treat that," etc. She still has quite a few things connected to her which makes it really hard to hold her without just making a big huge tangled up mess but we still have our cuddle time a couple times a day! We're also still trying to figure out how to control her pain without keeping her snowed. We're hoping they can get her more stabilized soon but we'll most likely be here in the ICU for a couple more days.

Save a life or two!

EVERYONE needs to be organ donors! So many life's can be saved! Being here in the ICU I have met many parents of little ones that are awaiting transplants so PLEASE register to be an organ donor. That way, when you die (and all of us have to someday) nobody has to decide for you! Just having a "Y" on your drivers license may not be enough so please visit www.organdonor.org today and register to save some lives!

No More Breathing Tube!

They just took out the breathing tube so we can hear her cry. She is doing well. She is still a little sedated so she is not quite sure what is going on but it's good to hear her voice again. Next we are waiting for the ultrasound so we can check out her veins and arteries.

Update on our miracle

Just thought I'd give everyone an update on the little peanut while everyone else is catching up on some sleep . . .

We were able to get into the PICU to see her around 8:30 this morning and all I can say is that I was totally shocked because she had NO BELLY! Her basketball (little "Willa" as the doctor would call it) was completely gone! It's amazing! It makes her arms and legs look a lot more chubbier.

All in all she's doing pretty good. There's a couple of things they're keeping a close eye on in addition to the usual things they look for but only time will tell how well she's gonna do. We're still just praying and hoping for the best!

It Finally Arrived!

MaKayle and Peanut were scheduled for surgery Thursday morning for the transplant. Wednesday we got a call around 5:00 pm about a potential liver. There was one baby ahead of Peanut on the list and she turned it down because she was too small to take the liver so . . . it was ours! They took Peanut in for the operation around 11:00 pm Wednesday night.

It is now 7:00 am Thursday morning and they are just about done. We got calls from the operating room every hour and a half or so. First they sedated her and all the tubes they need were placed. The next call was to say that her liver was almost out and as soon as the new liver arrived they would take it all the way out. A few hours later they told us that the new liver had been placed and that they needed to connect all the blood vessels and then finally we got a call saying the vessels had been connected and now they are going to take some ultra sounds to make sure they hadn't missed anything and then they would be done soon.

The surgeons just came in and gave us an update. They said the procedure went as best as it could have gone! They mentioned that a common problem in little ones is that the new liver doesn't fit just right, but that in Peanut her belly was so huge that it made plenty of room for the new liver. From here they will watch for blood clots and watch to make sure the liver starts to function right. If all those are good for a week they will watch how well her body is accepting the new liver. We will keep you all posted. Priesthood blessings are amazing and the gospel is true!

Thursday's the day!

The title pretty much says it all...Thursday's the day. If Peanut doesn't get a liver in another way by Thursday morning then they'll be taking part of mine! I'll be going into surgery around 7:30 am and then Peanut will follow about 2 hours later. I'm sure that Luke will keep you updated once the surgeries are under way, so you can check and see how it all went. So, keep the prayers coming! And, THANKS from the Larsen family!

Another False Alarm

We were told around 7:00pm that this liver was not splittable. It was an adult liver and it was really hard and stiff. I guess those livers are harder to split and often times don't work after they have been placed into the patient. This second false alarm hasn't got our hopes down though! We will wait for the right one. The plan is still to use MaKayle's liver on Thursday if one doesn't show up by then.

Another possible liver!

We have had kind of a busy Sunday today. Peanut had a bad night because her tummy was so big and she was uncomfortable. We got her belly drained again so she wasn't that uncomfortable and as soon as we returned to her room the phone in our room rang and MaKayle was informed that they have accepted a liver for Peanut. That is one step farther than the last liver that we almost had. They could still turn it down but it looks a lot more promising than the last false alarm. Everyone keep your fingers crossed. If it does go through the operation should be sometime tonight. Thanks again for all the support everyone has given us!