Update 9/9/11

Today was a day for some good news.  Nothing incredibly significant but improvement nonetheless.  All of Maddie Kate's labs have improved.  Her liver enzymes and bilirubin are down and her platelets are up to 97k (without transfusion) from 63k.  One of the bigger concerns was one of her immune cell counts called her absolute neutrophil count (ANC).  This number tells you how many cells there are to fight off infections.  If it dropped below 750 then they would have to stop the medicine until they came back up.  As of day 4 of treatment her ANC is approximately 6500.  If this stays up then that would be great news considering over 60% have this level drop (which is called neutropenia). 

We also talked with the neurologist today finally.  He seems to think that the abnormality on the MRI may not be related to the CMV infection.  He believes the imaging is more consistent with ischemia (lack of blood flow) that most likely occurred some time later in pregnancy.  There is no telling when that could have occurred but it doesn't really matter.  He also confirmed what the NICU doc said in that we won't know how this will affect her until she starts getting closer to developmental milestones.  He didn't have much to add to the fact that she failed two hearing screening tests except that they are good at detecting very small changes in hearing, but not good at telling you how much hearing loss there is (hence the word screening test).  Thus, in several weeks or months they will do an ABR hearing test that will test the reaction in her brainstem when different frequencies and intensities are used. 

So all in all a pretty good day.  Hopefully we'll have much more good news to come.  We have been in contact with many people that span the entire country and even into foreign land.  We can't explain how much it means to us to have such a wonderful, supportive immediate and extended family.  We have had all kinds of visitors from everywhere from my clinic in Jackson and our church to Bill and Betty all the way from Tuscaloosa, AL.  Just knowing how many people care and are praying for Maddie Kate helps relieve a lot of anxiety.  Jess and I firmly believe that God has his specific plan that we are still figuring out, but no matter what it is we will still think she's the most perfect girl ever born (tied with Abby of course).  Thank everyone so much, we couldn't ask for better family or friends.