As I sat downstairs at Vanderbilt Children's Hospital so April could
go up and see Will, I was completely taken away by Ellie to a place
that only knows joy and hope.

The last couple of days of update on Will in Sarah's words...

We found out Saturday that it was for sure an E. coli bacteria causing all our trouble. Sunday evening and all night were rough for little Will. They gave him his 3rd transfusion on Sunday afternoon. The first two transfusions were 100 ml. This 3rd one was 150 ml and from the same donor as the first two. He had a hard time with the extra 50 ml. Around 6:30, we noticed some changes in his appearance/behavior. He was very short of breath, agitated, and his skin appeared blotchy. His blood pressure was up as was his heart rate and he had started developing a fever. They did a chest xray on him and found small amount of fluid in the lungs- which was causing most of the problem. They immediately started to treat and he is slowly doing better. Today he has slept a good bit making up for lack of sleep in the last 24 hours. They decreased part of the iv fluid/nourishment to help decrease the fluid in the body/lungs and also added more “sugars” to the dialysis in hopes of pulling more toxin fluid out! We talked to the kidney specialist and she explained all of the above to us. She also told us we still have a fight ahead. He isn't declining- but we haven't started that uphill climb back to good health yet. We consider ourselves in the valley. The doctor said it takes 7-14 days to see signs of great improvement. Right now they are starting his 5th round of dialysis.

The good news from the 3rd transfusion, we are seeing better counts when they do blood work and signs of improvement there. There are hints that there maybe an infection (not E. coli- something else) and they have started him on an antibiotic today for that. The fluid in the lungs is temporary and go away as healing continues. He is drinking apple juice and water and keeping it down. Mrs. Sherry even got him to eat a couple Cheerios yesterday. As he is more tolerant of food, he will gain more and more strength! AND, we have seen trace…. VERY TRACE signs of pee pee! They are just tiny drops…. But I’ll take that over no drops any day!!!! I’ll keep you all posted, as we know more. Thank you for all the prayers, the addition to numerous prayer lists and forwarding our story on to fellow prayer warriors! John and I are doing amazingly well- and we give all credit to the power of prayer!

On a side note, we met the mother of another HUS/E. coli 17 month old yesterday. They have been in the hospital just over 4 weeks. The little boy’s name is Noah- and has had numerous complications and emergency surgeries for things such as a ruptured colon. He is gaining strength and even began to wet diapers yesterday, I think. They live 90 minutes away and have the prayer support we do- but not the physical support due to distance. We have shared some of our yummy food with this family. You all have been so generous in all the acts of kindness to our family. We wanted to share our wealth with our new found friends!