Simone Update 9/21

In the high stakes game that Simone was a part of this past week and a half, we feel as though she has finally laid down a winning hand. After 10 long days in the ICU, Simone will finally be coming home tomorrow.

Her bilirubin was down to 10.1 today. Hooray! It appears to be on a steady decline. Some of her other liver enzymes were up though, which continues to be a concern. Dr. Brownlee said it will likely just take time for them to get back down to normal levels after the level of insult her liver has suffered.

I saw her today at 4pm, and she got out of her cubby to greet me. She seemed very energetic and happy that I was there. The staff said she had actually tried to make a break for it twice today, stretching her IV cord near to the breaking point before they caught her and persuaded her to go back to bed. That tells us that she's finally ready to come home!

They will keep her hooked up to her IV overnight and through tomorrow afternoon to help keep flushing the bilirubin out of her body, and then she will get to come home to recuperate. She's lost quite a bit of weight and is pretty weak, so we won't be doing any long walks anytime soon. But hopefully some time at home, resting in her favorite spots with her favorite toys, and her mom and dad attending to her every move, want, and need will all get her back to her old self.

We definitely feel like we've won the lottery.