July 5

Today, Alivia was experiencing a lot of abdominal pain when she woke up.  I was quite concerned because she just was not herself. So I called the Liver Clinic and told them what was going on. They called me back a while later and said that they felt they needed to see her, which meant a trip to Salt Lake.  BUT the real kicker is that they wanted us to go the ER at Rexburg because they didn't know if she was stable enough for me to drive her down. They were thinking a possible ambulance ride.  That really scared me.  So I called Ryan, threw a bag together for myself and Alivia and we headed into the ER. Luckily Primarys had called them and told them I was coming and told them what they wanted them to do.  They drew blood and ran some labs, did some x-rays, and just checked her out in general.  We were there for an hour and half or so and it was determined that she was not a "toxic baby" and would be ok with us driving her down there, BUT we were not to take our time.  So I took Ryan back home, did a couple of things and then we headed out for Salt Lake.

We had a safe trip down here and arrived about 8:30 pm. They admitted us and sent us right up to the room.  By 9:00, they had a procedure called a paracentesis scheduled for 9:30. What this procedure does is drain the peritoneal fluid from her abdomin. They use an ultrasound to find the best placement, then a local anesthesia. They make a small incision and insert a catheter in to drain the fluid. Takes about 20 minutes. They drained about 280 ml. Not sure how much that is without a conversion, but I think it is right around 11 ounces.  Her abdomin went from 46 cm to 41 and it made it much softer. Right away I could tell she was feeling better.

She had a good night considering the interruptions. Her abdomin was enlarged again this morning so they have put her on a diuretic to remove some more fluid through her pee. They also sent some of the fluid to the lab to be tested to make sure there was no infection. So far things are looking good and she is feeling really good. We went for a nice walk just before lunch and now she is peacefully napping. I'm just waiting to meet with someone from the Liver Clinic to find out what our next move is.