We have all been waiting to see if the chylothorax would heal on its own, given enough time, but it seems apparent from the data that Liberty’s is not.  We’ll see if God decides to do anything unusual for her, but here are the options presented to us now.

1. Starve her completely for seven days in an effort to stop the outflow long enough for the vessel to heal.  (Not recommended.  Doctor said that course is HARD on patients.)

2. Exploratory surgery to find the leak and attempt to repair it.  (Not a single person involved in this wants to take that option, but until today, that was our only other option.)

3. It turns out, the internet googling I did in the middle of the night and linked to previously came in handy because it taught me about a newish technique developed by Penn Medicine in Philadelphia called percutaneous thoracic duct embolization.  Our surgeon studied at Penn when this procedure was being developed, and he called around at Penn to see if anyone knew how to perform this and would be willing to help Liberty.  It turns out, someone who studied the procedure works at this hospital and is willing to try it.  The embolization has never been done here before, so Liberty would be the first.  She was also the first to receive a thoracoscopic heart surgery from this hospital, and we see how well that turned out.  So we’d appreciate prayer.