May 31 - The Sky ISN'T Falling

...not yet, at least.

17:33 – Melanie wanted me to post another blog update because she felt like her previous post sounded as if it were written by a hepatic chicken little.

First... The diaper change just now had only old, dried blood! His feeding residual was 1cc and had only a trace of fresh blood. So it appears that he's not actively bleeding right now.

I had a chance to have a follow up talk to Dr. D this afternoon. He tells me that there are a couple of different things that could be causing Max' gastro-intestinal bleeding. Portal hypertension is one of those potential causes. One thing that we did learn from a blood test today is that Max' liver function is within (low end of) normal limits. That means that his liver is working. It's possible that there is scarring in the liver's venal system which may be causing the bleeding, but his liver is still doing its job. Right now, I'm hanging onto that fact, and that his latest feeding/diaper change was absent of blood.