Carissa is Out of Surgery

(Celeste, again...)

I just spoke with my Dad who informed me that Carissa is now out of surgery! She has been out for about an hour already. From what we understand so far, they found far less adhesions than they expected, which made the surgery go much more quickly that we expected. So, that's good news. Kareem was also able to successfully place the j-tube.

Dr. Kareem did a biopsy of the stomach and duodenum. We are not certain yet regarding a biopsy of the small bowel, but it sounds like he may have been able to avoid doing the resection of the bowel for that biopsy - but we are not certain of that information. Kareem indicated that he examined a few other things more carefully as well while he was performing the surgery, but we don't yet fully know the details of any of these things.

Mom and Dad have not yet heard yet whether Carissa will be going to the Transplant ICU or if she will be headed to 12 North - the normal floor of the hospital for transplant patients. Carissa was certainly hoping to go straight to 12 North, so we're hoping that will be the case. However, spending a few days in the TICU is still a possibility. We'll let you know once we've been informed where she is going after she gets out of recovery.

Thank you for your continued prayers. The Lord has protected Carissa during the course of the surgery, but it's likely that she will still have a lengthy recovery. Please pray that she will be protected from post-surgical complications including infections.

We will update further as more information becomes available.