Ethan Maccabee Sack

1.13.20 UPDATE: This Friday, Ethan has YET ANOTHER surgery. Our family is really hoping that this will be the last one and that they will opt to remove the bile duct drain and catheter sticking out of his chest... CROSSING OUR FINGERS!!! Our sweet Ethan is so strong and boosts our courage every day. Anything anyone can donate really helps us out tremendously! Thanks so much! Happy new year to everyone, we will update post-op at the end of this week. ♡ 12.11.19 UPDATE: This holiday season we are asking for donations to Ethan's GoFundMe. Every little bit goes a very long way! Ethan has had 4 additional surgeries since this past summer in hopes of saving his new liver which developed a few blockages and started turning him yellow again :( We are scheduled for his next surgery in PA this upcoming week. We hope they might remove his exterior bile drainage tubes soon, that his surgeries will slow to a stop and that this nightmare will stop terrorizing our family! Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukkah, Happy holidays and Happy New Year! May your year be happy and healthy!! 9.6.19 UPDATE while RUSHING TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM: We are in between surgeries (next one is scheduled for Wednesday, 9.18.19) and already we are RUSHING TO THE EMERGENCY ROOM. Ethan spiked a high fever and we were instructed to get him to our local ER immediately because there is likely an issue with his liver catheter and Ethan may be becoming septic. If this is the case, it is EXTREMELY dangerous and may be life threatening. ANYTHING anyone is able or willing to donate is so much appreciated and helps Ethan and our family an incredible amount. Please share wherever possible!!! 8.29.19: Ethan's surgery is tomorrow. Leaving for PA in just a few hours. We are so hopeful that this procedure will save his transplanted liver and give him a better chance at life! 8.27.19: Shalom Chaverim! Ethan's surgery is officially this Friday morning at UPMC in Pittsburgh. I will be driving with Ethan to PA on Thursday so we are there for his early morning OR time window. We are really really hoping that there won't be any complications and that we won't need to stay longer than anticipated. Joe will be home with our other 4 children for this surgery. We are crossing our fingers and hoping that Ethan's transplanted liver can be saved so Ethan will not require yet another transplant! It would be such a relief if they took that catheter out of his chest!!! Anything that anyone is able to donate to help with expenses related to Ethan's current situation goes A VERY LONG WAY!!! Thank you SO much everyone 8.23.19: Hi all! So thankfully Ethan's last surgery has been beneficial to his health and we are hoping that this helps enough so he will not require another transplant. His surgical team has decided that in order to give his transplanted liver a true fighting chance, they will need to do several more surgeries to help open up his bile ducts. We were just informed that Ethan's next surgery is scheduled for early morning this upcoming Friday, Aug 30. Apparently this one is supposed to be "same day surgery" which means that Ethan will not be admitted inpatient as long as there are no complications and he doesn't have trouble breathing after intubation as he has struggled with before. Hopefully after this surgery, Ethan will not have to come back home with an exposed catheter hanging out of his chest again. It's already such a delicate dance to care for a baby with a transplant, but to add an exposed catheter and dressing changes... it's too much!! We are hopeful this will be the end of the catheter/bile duct stretching episode! It is so very difficult for our family of 7, to have to make arrangements for our children and some combination of us to travel back and forth between home (NY) and UPMC (PA). Anything that anyone is willing to donate is so very much appreciated and really helps us tremendously!! [PREVIOUS POSTS DELETED DUE TO CHARACTER LIMIT]