Sorry it's been so long...

Well, Charlie is doing FANTASTIC!!!!! We are soooooo happy! His last appointment with Dr. Book was last month and went wonderful. There is a chance that he may never even need a transplant. Wouldn't that be awesome? Also, his labs looked much better. Liver enzymes were about the same, ALT 51 and AST 94, and vitamin D level was normal at 37. And the most shocking was his ggt level, which had been as high as 2600, is now at 80!

Thanks so much for all the thoughts and prayers!!!! Here is a few latest pics...

Chuckles

Lately, Nick has been calling Charlie "Chuckles". We think it's a great new nickname! He has been

doing really well lately. No liver problems at all!! He got croup a few weeks ago but got over it in no time. Here's some of his latest pics...

Doing great

Charlie had two doctor appointments yesterday. Both went really well. The first was with Dr Book, his GI doctor. His liver is a bit softer and smaller. Also, his labs look the best they ever have. Total bilirubin is 0.1 and ALT and AST are 30 and 50. I had never thought his liver enzymes would be anywhere near normal. We have been so blessed with Charlie being this healthy.
His second appointment was with Dr. Eborn, his family doctor. He now weighs a whopping 14 pounds and 12 oz. This is still around the 5th percentile but he is growing on schedule so we are really happy with it. Everyone keeps telling us how good he looks. We are even starting to see some fat rolls on him! Yea!! We love fat babies:)

Infection free

Charlie's had a heart echo on Friday. Fortunately there were no signs of infection! Also, later that day he was able to get his PICC line removed. Good day overall. Since then he has been doing really well. He will be off of steroids on Wednesday.

He has been growing quite a bit and is coming closer to catching up with his sis.

Dec 3, 2007

Updates so far: Charlie is still on IV meds and will have his PICC line until Friday. Also, we had to reschedule his heart echo to this Friday as well. Unfortunately, he will have to be sedated for the echo so I am glad he will still have his PICC line. He's had enough IV pokes already.
Overall, he is doing really well. No more fevers and he's been feeling okay. He's still on the small side but is growing and eating well. We are sure happy to have him home.

Sleepy boy

Charlie was able to come home on Sunday. Yea!!! It's so nice to be out of the hospital. I think Charlie was starting to think that it was his second home:)

We figured out that he had got a staph infection, specifically staphlococcus epidermidis. Vancomycin is a really good antibiotic for this bacteria. He had got admitted again the day before Thanksgiving because the levels on his vancomycin weren't high enough to take care of it completely. So his dose was increased yet again. Nick's dad got a chance to talk to Dr Book and she told him that she has never had to give such a high dose to any patient before. It was obvious that he needed it that high though. Just another example of him being a unique little guy:)

Grandma Campbell has offered again to take the girls for a couple days in order to let us spend some time with Charlie adjusting to home. He has been coping okay. He sleeps a lot but whenever he is awake he is always needing to be comforted. I think he is still just a little leary of what is going to happen next. Poor guy, I feel so bad for what he has had to go through. But also very fortunate to have him as healthy as he is, considering his condition.

Thanksgiving

I thought that there was no way I was going to be able to make it to Thanksgiving dinner in Ogden this year because of Charlie being in the hospital. But I was wrong. The nurses that day were not very busy and Charlie was doing really well, so I decided to go for a few hours. It was so refreshing to get out of the hospital and to spend some time with the girls. We all had such a fun time that day. Kayla even got to play football with Nick.