Tuesdays With Carter

We are home! We got to leave at about 4 PM, and it is so nice to be in our own place, where he is relaxed and comfortable. We are awaiting the results of the biopsy and the final news from the CT scan. We heard from Dr. Ashcraft, who works with Dr. Schropp, before we left. The CT showed several things:
It appears that Carter's liver is pretty normal structurally, which means that all the bulges and gnarliness is from quite a bit of damage and scarring (cirrosis). This means that the liver is already in poor shape. There is some damage to the lower part of the esophagus, the spleen is enlarged, and there is an increasing amount of fluid in the abdomen. There appears to be no gallbladder. All of this is in line with effects of biliary atresia. This is all PRELIMINARY, as we haven't heard from Dr. Schropp, but we plan on having the Kasai procedure Monday. Those other things (spleen, esophagus, etc.) will have to be dealt with in time, and we don't know what the damaged liver means yet.
This all sounds very serious and scary, and we hate to just lay it all out there, but there's no use sugar coating it. We are trusting God in all of this, although we have our fair share of questions, anger, and pain. Our little boy has a long road ahead of him, and your prayers will be needed for quite some time.
Here's a picture of our little hero we took after we got home. As you can see he looks like a happy little baby. We think he's stronger than the both of us combined.