Maggie was admitted to Batson through the (adult) ER here at UMMC last night. She had no complications from the needle biopsy, and we made it home early Friday afternoon. However, she awoke yesterday to serious nausea. After throwing up once she began to run a fever that remained above 101 for several hours. We made the decision to come to Batson over Hattiesburg or Birmingham due to its proximity (over UAB) and due to the presence of her oncology/surgery team (over Hattiesburg – do you know how long it would take to update them on her history?). We were a little disappointed to find she had “birthday-ed” out of the pediatric ER by 6 days but were assured that, if admitted, she would go to Batson. And here we are. Not the homecoming we wanted. Her liver enzymes were elevated again (last week at MDA we learned they had fallen within normal range). A CT shows dilation of the bile duct due to “stent disfunction”. We’ll learn more once pediatric oncology and surgery have a chance to look at her case. As I write, we heard her enzymes are trending lower this morning – probably due to fluid intake through drip and lack of food for over 24 hours. (She’s NPO for now until a decision is made about the direction of care)

We are relieved and thankful to find Maggie’s surgeon, Dr. Berch, is on call this weekend and has been by this morning. We’ve seen the oncology team, as well. The plan is to allow surgery to study scans and formulate the treatment plan in consultation with Batson oncology and Dr. Raghav at MDA. We’re not sure how this will impact the clinical trial scheduled to start this week if at all. That will depend on what intervention is deemed best. We are obviously concerned but have assurance that Maggie is getting the best care, and God’s plan for her is still on track. We appreciate your prayers and will update as more information is available.