Great News!

Little Elliot had his head and kidney ultrasounds and head MRI today (which included getting to wear these really cool ear muffs and hang out in a bean bag perfectly molded to his wee little body--he seemed to dig it), and we got great results. Both tests revealed that the meningitis has caused only minimal damage to his brain, and he hopefully won't have any significant developmental challenges because of this run-in with nasty old E Coli bugs. What a huge relief. His kidney ultrasound was also good. There is still some swelling around one of his kidneys, but no more than was reported after the first infection, and it's not likely to cause any serious problems. We'll have some further tests on this once the infection is knocked out for good.

Now I also have some news about the infection itself. After some serious investigationating by the hospital's head microbiologist, Elliot's team is quite sure that this bug is actually the first bug which is a particularly nasty strain of E Coli and just didn't get knocked out good enough with the first round of antibiotics. What this means is that this time they've brought in some stronger "big gun" antibiotics, and Elliot will need to be on an IV for three weeks to be sure the antibiotics get straight into his system.

Thursday he'll have a more permanent line put in (so they don't have to continue to bruise his little hands and feet putting IVs in). If all goes well with his progress, it looks like we'll be able to go home next week and a nurse will come to our house to administer the antibiotics for the rest of the three weeks.

Other than that Elliot, Paul and I are getting used to hanging out at the hospital. We have great nurses that help make things a little easier by taking care of Elliot when we need some sleep and just hanging out with us and helping us take our mind off things when they're not too busy with other sick babies. I've also discovered a free cappuccino vending machine tucked away in a staff lounge and a little library where I can check out books to read to Elliot.

I can't believe how much he is changing these days. He's fallen in love with his glow worm and just stares at it mesmerized when it glows and sings him lullabies. He's also started to wiggle around a whole lot and interact with us more and has even given us a couple of real smiles. It's amazing how one little Elliot smile can make us forget all about this other nonsense.

Thanks again for all the kind notes and thoughts. It really brightens my day to get a little love from our friends and family (even if/especially when it's from halfway around the world).