Many of you have reached out to me personally to check in on Aadi. Please know how much your messages mean to us! I have done my best to respond to you all, but as my time right now is better spent by my baby's side and holding things together on the home front, I have decided to post regular updates to facebook rather than respond to each person individually. I hope this information makes it's way to all concerned parties:

Thursday July 20th:

Things are still touch and go with Aadi at this point. We've had equal good news, and bad news to share over the last 24 hours. Today Aadi is in even more pain than the days previous, and it has become apparent the pain we believed to be localized to her right knee is actually consistent throughout her lower extremeties on both sides. They have upped her pain meds from motrin to oxycodon, and it certainly seems to be doing the trick. She is very swollen and still pretty weak, but overall has had more energy today than yesterday, is smiling, playing peekaboo, and starting to return to her usual bubbly self.

We still do not have a cause or source for her symptoms. All viral testing has been returned negative. We are awaiting results from bacterial cultures. Her echo and EKG were normal. Her CBC is within a normal range. Her immune markers are not consistent with an auto immune disorder (VERY good news for us today, as this was thought to be a likely cause). Her ultrasounds have been insignificant. Her vitals remain stable. She is not septic, and no longer febrile. The MRI did not detect any abnormalities. All this is GOOD news. The bad news is that she has had several abnormal labs, including elevated ESR and CK levels---indicative that there is not only muscle inflamation happening, but that the muscles are also breaking down, releasing potentially harmful proteins into her bloodstream. They are watching her closely for signs of kidney damage, a very real concern given this, as well as the antibiotics, and the pain killer regimen she's been on over the last couple days. We are still hoping and praying for answers more than anything. pieces with maroon color at party

One thing we do know, is that Aadi will not be better for a long time. Her doctors have prepared me for a lengthy recovery (weeks, months, even a year or more) but they do seem confident she will come back from this and return to being the happy, healthy, energetic little girl we all know. She has a wonderful pediatric care team, and a handful of specialists (cardiologists, rheumatologists, orthopedic surgeons, etc) who are checking in on her daily, running necessary tests, and looking out for her as best as possible. I am very thankful we've had such a caring team of individuals looking out for us since we've arrived.

Thank you to all who have reached out with prayers, kindness, and well wishes. They have certainly been felt the last 48 hours. And thank you to those who have reached out via text, or have stopped by to visit. Your presence and support has meant the world. For those of you who know her, you know that Aadi is a strong willed, demanding, fiesty little firecracker of a girl, and that fighter spirit has served her well throughout her ordeal. She's been so tough and so brave... as her mother I couldn't be more proud. I'm confident in her ability to fight this. In the meantime we take it day by day.