Last Friday we met with Dr. Price for a check-up on the drain, etc. He scheduled a radiology test for today to see how the drain is doing and to see if the intestine below the drain was blocked. From what the radiologist said, everything looked great. He saw no leaks and the intestine was clear. That is good news. What does that mean? Where do we go now? Who knows. Our guess is that he will start to clamp off the malecott on and off throughout the day to get the drainage to lessen and to see if it is time to pull the drain. Not sure if that means pull it totally out or inch it out slowly. Also not sure if that will happen in Murray or at UCLA. He really wants us to go to UCLA and have another consultation with the team down there. We know that Brent still does not qualify for a transplant but there are other options available at UCLA that are not available here. So, as usual, our lives are still up in the air with no definite plan of action.

He did get the wound vac off last Wednesday, and that has been nice to not have to worry about. There is still a small hole in the incision that we have to attend to, but that's minor. The drain insertion site is still very painful, and that isn't going to go away. Brent has been able to work a little bit from home and that is good.

We have decided that we are just plain bad luck. Got a call from Tina yesterday . . . she ended up at Instacare in Logan with a smashed finger from a car door. Ouch! We got Michelle's Subaru home on Saturday, thanks to some awesome neighbors who drove our truck down to Cedar City with a car carrier and the 4-Runner on the back, and delivered the 4-Runner to Michelle and brought the dead Subaru back up. Going to sell it as a "Mechanic's special." Needs a new engine. :( My Volvo, which I love dearly, is also breathing it's last breathes. Ugh. Needs a new transmission. Volvo quoted me $5,000 to replace it. Not gonna happen. Checking other options. :( Vehicles drive me nuts.

Other than that, life is great! We really do count our blessings, and we really do know that we have much to be thankful for. Brent is still alive and getting stronger, and cars can be replaced, somehow. :)

Lisa