Cordelia had a rough night last night and hard day today, all challenging and pretty scary for Dani and Cliff as well.

While I'm not completely sure of all of the details, apparently she has not been tolerating the pace of her food well (which is now being given through a feeding tube), and her belly, which continues to expand because of fluid retention and bloating is measuring over 51 cm, much larger than when they originally "tapped" her to reduce the swelling. All of these issues were making it quite hard for her to breath, and her labored breathing was beginning to be quite concerning Cliff and Dani.

After some more tests, and some guesses that she might be becoming borderline anemic, the Doctors decided on what will likely be the first of several blood transfusions, which is a four hour process.

Daddy and his little girl. 

Cliff and Dani were also told that neither of them is a great match to be a living donor. They were both tested and while they were hoping that one of them would be a good match it turns out that neither of them is. Because Cordelia is so small, a living donor would also need to be on the small side (around 100-120 pounds). I don't know a lot about the living donor process (I promise to do some research and share some more with you as I learn about it), but I do know that in an ideal world they would love to have a good living donor lined up as back-up in case they run out of options (i.e. a perfectly matched liver from a non-living donor) as time goes on.

Cliff and Dani are both very tired, not getting much sleep and being taught new information daily about how to care for Cordelia and how to participate in things like the feeding process (through the feeding tube). Even changing her diaper is difficult because of all of the wires and IV's. Cliff joked in one of his Facebook posts that he wasn't able to find the section in "What to Expect in the First Year" on all of this stuff...

How true...

Please continue to lift all of these things up in your prayers-- that Cordelia would stay as healthy as possible and avoid all infections, that we would all have peace and be trusting that God has the right liver at the right time in His plans, and that He would be filling Cliff and Dani up with continued strength, wisdom and peace.



P.S. I've posted a link on the right hand side to a fundraising site that has been set up for Cliff and Dani. Click on the link to check it out.

Also, feel free to leave comments for Cliff and Dani at the ends of these posts by clicking on the "Comments" section where you can write your thoughts, prayers and words of encouragement.