Friday, February 1st noon

Well, Mario had an okay evening, is stable and no more bloody vomits. All the docs came at rounds this morning and confirmed we will need to do an endoscopy. They put him under anestesia and use a "scope" to look down his throat, down into his tummy and try to figure out where the bleeding is. Dr. Horslen seems to think it is NOT varices (a vein in the esophogus that would be actively bleeding) but more likely something in his tummy. If it is varices, they would attempt to close them off with "banding" (sounds like little rubber bands) or more likely (since he is so small) they use some goo to close off/clog the vein that's bleeding. The scope will tell us more. These are all resulting from portal hypertension. We had an ultrasound a few minutes ago and are waiting to get on the list for the endoscopy...sounds like 3pm. So, we're definetely here for another night. I'll update when we know more - probably later this evening after the procedure.

Link to explain endoscopy http://www.medicinenet.com/endoscopy/article.htm

Side note - Oprah did a show on organ donation yesterday... I missed it but there's info on her site if you are interested http://www2.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200801/tows_past_20080131.jhtml