Abby update.

For those who rely on this blog for grandma pictures, I apologize. I promise I will post some soon. In the meantime, I'm working on preliminary measures for 0ur local 40 Days for Life effort (www.kitsap40daysforlife.com) and little Abby went into surgery this afternoon. Please keep her and her family in prayer as they navigate the recovery. It's hard being six in a hospital bed.

It took two days for four surgeons and two specialists to come to a consensus on whether to proceed with surgery on Abby or to send her home and allow her body to continue to heal on its own. Apparently, it was a really divided group with some heated discussion. But, in the end, the decision was made that surgery is our best option. Surgery is scheduled for 1pm tomorrow (Thursday) afternoon.
For the surgery, they'll be performing the VATS procedure, which is the camera thingy being stuck in through one hole and, basically, a scooper going in through another hole. The objective is to get in and try to scrape out some of the infection, which has turned from a liquid into a congealed...well, goo. There is apparently quite a bit of goo surrounding the lower lobe of her left lung, which is preventing it from expanding. Left alone, the goo could eventually turn into a solid rock, which would then create all kinds of further and more serious complications. The VATS procedure could last anywhere from one hour to three hours or more, depending on how long it takes to scoop out the goo. During the surgery, they'll replace her existing chest tube with a larger chest tube to try to drain out whatever they don't scoop out. The tube will remain in her chest for 3-7 days, or until the goo stops draining.
Her platelet count is back up to an operable level and the results from the bone marrow aspiration show that her bone marrow is producing platelets just fine...so it's definitely her body that's chewing them up. The blood specialist still goes with his initial diagnosis of ITP (auto-immune deficiency). Again, the ITP should eventually take care of itself and go away. But, during the surgery, the blood specialist will be on hand in case she needs any transfussions, and he will be keeping a very close eye on her platelets.
That's about it in a nutshell. Hopefully, her platelet count is still high in the morning and they (finally) proceed with the surgery tomorrow. We weren't really excited about the prospect in the beginning, but now agree with the decision. The goal is to get her better...faster. And, despite the fact that they're going to be operating on our little girl, we know that she'll be in good hands...both the surgeons' and God's.