Week 2 
One week from transplant and James' liver function tests (LFTs) were going the wrong way, the doctors were concerned about possible rejection even though the bowel biopsy had not shown anything.
The doctors made the decision to prepare for a liver biopsy on Wednesday morning if the blood tests taken at 6am still showed worsening numbers. This would mean another trip to theatre, the dreaded Anaesthetists and sleepless nights all round 
. However, first James needed to go for a trip to ultrasound for a "spot marker" which involved a doctor looking to see exactly where his liver was ready to put the biopsy needle in.
Wednesday morning the decision was made for a trip to theatre as the LFTs had not improved. 10:30 James was taken down on his bed, luckily we persuaded staff to do the operation withouut transferring him to the standard table which helped reduce the stress as he did not see the anaesthetist do her bit.
An hour later and he was in recovery still subdued but not too distressed.
James spent the rest of the day watching TV holding his dad's hand whilst he underwent the stress of all the observations and the IV and oral medicines he has to have.
After transplant patients receive courses of drugs to reduce surpession followed by antibiotics, antiviral and anti fungal drugs to try to protect them whilst the transplanted organs are "accepted" by the body. During this he was also on replacement fliuds, his TPN IV feed and a milk feed resulting in up to 8 pumps running at the same time and nurses having to change over drugs hourly at points interrupted by "bing bong" alarms on all 8 pumps every hour
Pensive 19/01/05 Bop the Martians 19/01/05
Thursday meant another bowel biopsy, this time the play specialist Vicky read a story whilst Dad removed the stoma bag and the doctor took his sample.
James was very good and continued to play with Vicky, the first time he had let anyone else be with him and Dad sat back and relaxed for half an hour watching.
Jemma the phsyio wanted to get James back on his feet as soon as possible and brought along a "comfy chair" for James so he could sit out off the bed and he decided he liked to sit on the floor but could not take his weight yet.
Dad played football with James sitting on a box to try and get his legs working which worked for a while but James preferred to throw the ball back at him which continued on Friday with more play and Dad was again able to go shopping this time for a couple of presents for James
Out of Bed!
Over the weekend James' confidence improved. no longer was Dad having to hold his hand continuously instead he was having to find him games to play on the internet on Dads "cootingcooter" Cbeebies & Nick Jr. website was most liked paying endless "Dora the Explorer", "Blues Clues" and "Max and Ruby" games with the favourite "Big Cook Little Cook" bake the bread game. ( 
Thankyou Vodafone for the 3G Data Card)
Thankfully Helen the nursery nurse was working the weekend so Dad could get a bit of food in the odd half an hour she was able to spare.
Monday 24th, the "most depressing day of the year" the news kept saying on the telly, not that they were doing much to cheer anyone up.......
James on the other hand decided he was going make a few people smile, starting with "standing" which became "dancing" and he declared "my legs are working!!" This was following by "riding" the Thomas tricycle to the doors of the HDU unit and then playing peek-a-boo with the nurses outside<o:p></o:p>
Not convinced that this was enough progress for one day James annouced that he wanted a Ham Sandwich for lunch, which he ate followed by Marnite on toast for tea and more Ham sandwiches for supper.
My Mate Marmite
During the week James had been on some "milk" feed run 24hrs staight into the new bowel via a tube in his nose (left nostril) this was being increase by 5ml/hr every 24 hrs, the objective to get him to 60ml/hr when he would be receiving enough nutrition to stop his IV ("TPN") feed, by Monday he was on 40ml and his new bowel was coping well, so much so they decided to increase rate by 5ml every 12 hrs.
Next Update Week 3
