The life of.................. the Jongsma's

Dear Family and Friends,
The week has finally arrived! Steve and I will be taking off in the morning for Ann Arbor for an enjoyable day, doing some business ( I love watching my husband work!), taking some clients to lunch and then off to do a round of golf (hope they all have patience for me! ) We will be getting a hotel in Ann Arbor for the night b/c we need to be at the hospital at 7am on Thursday. My procedure starts at 8:30. At this time I don't have alot of information as to "What" they will be doing but what I do know is this:

It is an interventional Radiology procedure, not a full blown surgery. If this works, then hopefully we never have to do the "big one". The radiologist has a plan but we don't know what path it will be until we get in my body and try. 1st attempt: through my subclavian in my neck and femoral vein in my leg to get to the Portal Vein near my liver. He wants to get a shunt into that vein and basically "rotorudder" that clot out of there and get my flow going! If this doesn't work then 2nd attempt: going from my side through my liver, again trying to get into this portal vein. If this doesn't work then 3rd attempt, making an incision in my front abdomen directly at the Portal vein.

Why don't we know which? B/c of the extent of the new collaterals, the new veins that my body has created to by-pass this clot in my portal vein is like a major highway now. The veins could cause problems b/c we can't get into that portal vein b/c of all the others in the way.
I have a room reserved for a night. They are currently at 100% capacity, so reservations have been made for one night. Will I need it? If the first attempt works, probably not. If it doesn't, then I will.
What if all don't work? Then we have another meeting with my Gastroenterologist here in GR, the Liver Surgeon at U of M, the Radiologist who did it, and we have no choice but to do a major surgery. Down the road I might have to have the big one even if we do get this done. We don't know and don't want to do the "big one" until I bleed internally from the veins that have been created in my esophagus that I am currently getting "banded" or from one of my intestinal veins that are also getting bigger and bigger.

If this does work, my internal blood flow will go down, the veins internally will shrink in size and may even disappear, my spleen will return to normal, I won't have intestinal pain, and everything that has happened inside b/c of this clot will go away! We will follow up with a year of CT's and Ultrasounds and if all is well, I can quit my Lovenox injections, quit my beta blockers, and hopefully never see a Doctor as a patient agian!!

Please keep me, and my family in your prayers. I just can't stop thinking about my precious babies sleeping upstairs and wish I could be with them, but hopefully someday they will realize mom has to do what she needs to do right now to take care of herself and that they will in the end get their mom back, healthy and we can be together for the rest of my life however long that may be!

Love you all!

Lisa