A wish for Emily #14: January Update
Hello friends! Today is a massive day for Emily as she has surgery for the first time in ages. From her Mum, Mel: Her current central line has been in place for almost 6 years and needs replacing due to narrowing of the jugular vein it is located in. She also needs a liver biopsy as her liver levels are a little bit elevated again. Our Melbourne and Sydney teams feel that it is time to have a better look at how her liver is going. Her kidney stones are also causing some issues but we will deal with those later in the year. How lovely to see her enjoying a visit to the Blue Mountains a couple of weeks ago:
Living with osteoporosis is also part of Emily’s ‘norm’ and the 3rd break in this foot saw her hopping around in her boot to attend many clinics and appointments over the last week or two in the lead up to the surgery: 
Emily loved being able to spend time in the water yesterday, something she doesn’t get to do very often. Again, from Mum: With a central line there comes a huge risk of infection, especially from bacteria in water. Central line infections are life threatening. The official position of Westmead kids is “no swimming”. We have always encouraged Emily to not let her medical issues limit her life. With such an old line we have been able to cover it with copious amounts of dressing and let her swim in some pools. Although it can be tricky to get the dressing off, it is so worth it to see that smile! 
