Tuesday, July 17th

Mario weighed in at 4.72 kilos today...about 300 grams more in one week (since last visit 4.45). This is great news. The Gastro doc is still happy with the color of his poop as well. As Monika put it "Pooray!" - I had to use it :)

There is not much else to report. Dr. Christie wants to see us again on Friday after we get blood work and see the dietician and surgery folks at Children's. So, we have this marathon day Friday of blood test, appts in Seattle, then swinging by his Bellevue office on the way home. It will be good to do the check in with him in Bellevue though because he said he will take all the notes from the other appts, blood work results, etc. and give us some more detail about next steps.

On next steps, here's what he did say: some of his meds are "indifinite" - specifically ones that help bile production and absorbtion as well as vitamin supplements (iron and a water soluable form of the fat soluable vitamins). Although, I can possibly stop doing the injection if blood work looks good on Friday. Friday's bilirubin results will also give us a better idea how well the bile is flowing out of the liver - we know it is since his poop is a good brown/green color, but he is still slightly jaundice. Dr. Christie said it can take up to 3 months to get jaundice levels back to normal...but the sooner that happens, the better the chance of longer term success with the procedure. If the bilirubin levels are still high/haven't lowered enough, we will go back to children's one day for another HIDA scan.

So, send good vibes for lower bilirubin levels this week and I'll update again over the weekend. Thank you all and all our love, Phoebe and fam