First Email Updates

Oct. 8, 2010

Hi Everyone-

I’m writing on behalf of Katie and Chris and their new son William (Will). As they were leaving the hospital to go home yesterday afternoon, the discharging nurse noticed he wasn’t looking well. After a lengthy examination at Missouri Baptist (where he was delivered), he was transferred down to Children’s Hospital and examined further. The doctors confirmed that Will was born with a serious heart defect which is going to require long term treatment and care. Katie and Chris are doing ok but they would like to ask that you keep Will in your thoughts and prayers while he is being treated at Children’s. We will provide updates as they are given.

Thank you in advance for your support! I know Katie and Chris greatly appreciate it.

Sincerely, Liz (Will’s Aunt J)

Oct. 9, 2010

Hi all,Chris and I wanted to provide a quick update on Will. He has madeincredibly positive progress in his recovery from yesterday andalthough he is not completely stable yet, we are amazed at theimprovement he's shown so far, this is in terms of his recoveryassociated with the complications that began yesterday afternoon as aresult of his heart defect. Today we were informed that once he isstable, the next step is heart surgery which is most likely to happenat the end of next week if he continues improve. To let you knowexactly what is going on, his condition is called hypoplastic leftheart syndrome and there are actually a series of 3 heart surgeriesthat they will use to correct this. If you google it you can find somereally good information that will explain the defect and these 3surgeries that are most commonly used to correct it - beginning withthe Norwood procedure which may happen late next week.We most of all want to thank you for all of your prayers for littleWilliam and ask that you continue to pray for him through the days,weeks and months to come. Chris and I are are so thankful for theamazing support of our friends and family and even though we may nothave gotten to respond to all of you calls and emails, we arestrengthened by the knowledge that Will has so many prayers andthoughts coming his way. We have every confidence that the team hereat Childrens Hospital are giving him the best care he could possiblyreceive and we are truly confident that he will make a full recovery.There is still a long road ahead for our little guy and we will befighting alongside him every step of the way. It was truly divineintervention that the course of events went the way that they did onThursday and he has some amazing guardian angels at Missouri Baptistthat are responsible for saving Will's life. He is an amazing littleboy and we assure you that you will all get to meet him very soon!Thank you again!

Love,

Katie, Chris and William Saykes

Oct. 12, 2010

Hi All,

First i apologize if you got a weird email/text(s) from me today - myphone is not really cooperating! I finally got to sit down on thecomputer to do this.Today is William's 1 week Birthday which is very exciting and ourlittle man is continuing to show us how strong he is with his steadyimprovement every day. He is starting to move his fingers, toes,arms, legs and mouth as he wakes up after being taken off hisparalytic drugs on Sunday. These drugs keps him paralyzed and he wasalso sedated so that he would relax and let all the machines andmedecines do their jobs to help him recover. It is so wonderful tosee him start moving and we need him to become more active in order towork out all the fluids that have built up in his little body over thepast few days. His nurse Martha is very confident that she will getto see him open his "pirate eye", (he tends to open his right eye morethan the left). Chris and I have been spending the morning from about7:30 or 8am to 2pm or 3pm or so at the hospital, going home for a napand then returning around 6pm - 7pm and staying until about 1 or 2am.We realized that getting sleep at home at night was important for usand we know we are not far from him and that the hospital will call ifanything were to change. We are waiting on word from the Cardiac ICUon when we can move up there from the NICU but he is getting the bestof care there right now. It sounds like surgery will be the beginningof next week and not the end of this week as we had originally beentold. This will give William even more time to recover and growstrong before his heart surgery which is very important. Today he gotsome special visitors too which he was very excited about! Dan andJohn stopped by at lunchtime as well as Kathleen, Andrea and Jenny(who all work at Children's). Will loves getting visits from hisfamily and friends and hopefully he'll be looking at them all verysoon. Sydney has also been paying him frequent visits from upstairsand they are apparently getting to be great buddies :)I know a lot of people are asking what they can do to help, and reallyright now, we are still just asking for prayers for Will's recoveryand to heal his little heart and body. Chris and I know he is goingto come home with us soon and we are doing our best to be patient andto be by his side, supporting him as much as possible.I attached a pic of him from this morning - he's still on a ventilatorbut is breathing pretty much on his own now which is awesome! Hereally is so adorable (although I may be biased), and we love juststaring at his little face all day long and talking to him. We havestory time every night and Chris has determined that Goodnight Moon isalready William's favorite :) I will keep updating as I have the timeand again, please forward this email around to anyone that I have notalready included - the more prayers and thoughts we have going his way, the better!Love,

Katie, Chris and William Saykes

Oct. 14, 2010

Hi everyone,

Just a quick update. We moved up to the Cardiac CICU yesterday sothat was great news! Will is going to be up here for a while now preand post surgery. He was lucky enough to get a corner room with a viewof downtown and hopefully he'll be opening his eyes soon to enjoy the sunrise! Our little man continues to get a little better every dayand is still enjoying all his visits from family and friends! Hisbuddies Aidan, Finley and Lilly have made him some awesome signs thatwe have hung in his room! Thank you for your continuing prayers forWilliam:)

Love,

Katie, Chris and Will