Bennett is 4 ½ today!

So proud of his tummy

Yes, it’s a big day…Bennett is 4 ½! We are celebrating the little things in life now. Not that your half birthday is something little when you’re 4. I was young for my grade growing up, so my Mom always made a big deal out of my half birthday. Matt has always thought it was silly, but Bennett thought it was fantastic today!! Oh, and its Matt’s half birthday too…they were both born on February 27th.

We were up bright and early again today for our weekly clinic visit at UCLA. We were on the road by 6:30am, and got up there just in time. The earliest they open is 8am, and we had them do a blood draw on Carter right away. After they draw his blood, he can finally eat something. Then, we wait to be seen by a doctor in the clinic. It’s first come, first serve and we are just learning the process. We know now we have to put our name in at the clinic the same time we are getting Carter’s blood drawn, otherwise we are fourth on the list (like today). The waiting room is full of people being seen by all types of doctors. Matt and I looked at each other with each sneeze and cough around us during our wait.

One thing that was great while we were waiting though was to hear other liver patient’s stories. One 18 year-old girl had sudden liver failure at age 8 and received a transplant. She was there for her annual check-up before heading off to art school in North Carolina. Another father was telling his daughter’s story about her being born with liver disease. She was transplanted a year and a half ago at 8 months of age. They transplanted her and the new liver worked for two minutes before failing, they had to keep her on life support for 20 hours before another liver was available. She then got a liver and has had an amazing recovery. Matt and I weren’t really even in these conversations, we were just listening…and I had tears running down my face. It’s just amazing to hear these success stories. I hope to share ours with other liver patients in the future.

Finally, we were called back to have Carter’s vitals taken and sent to a room to see our transplant coordinator and the doctor. Before we left, we got Carter’s blood work back. All his levels look great! His liver counts are some of the best levels since transplant. His body isn’t dehydrated anymore, which is very important because one of the meds he is on could adversely affect his kidneys. They are adding another med to our routine tomorrow (ugh!). It’s a 7.5ml oral drug (which is basically two oral drugs) given in the morning and night (ugh! ugh!). One of these days, we will start reducing our meds. Can’t wait for that day!!