UPDATE (5/26/2011): This past year has been amazing! On March 26th we celebrated the 2 year anniversary of Trae’s kidney transplant and he continues to do amazingly well.
We continue to make regular visits to the UI Children’s Hospital, however those regular visits have turned into every 3-6 months instead of each and every month. While this is a good thing, we all miss visiting with Dr. Brophy, Rhonda, Mary Lee and the entire staff in the Peds Specialty Clinic. We continue to be blessed each and everyday that we were so lucky to have such professional and caring doctors and nurses and such a top notch facility like the UI Children’s Hospital. They truely do care about the patients and the families and do everything possible to make your stay as comfortable as possible.
In April we took Trae to Orlando and Walt Disney World on his Make A Wish Trip, which he was nominated for by Dr. Brophy’s staff. This truely was a dream come true for Trae as he was able to meet all of his favorite Disney characters along with Shrek, Princess Fiona and with Mike and Sully from Monsters Inc. Trae continues to talk about all the hugs he was able to give the characters and spends hours watching the video and looking at pictures from our trip.
Trae enjoys his days at pre-school and loves watching/playing any sports possible, with hockey of course being his main focus(Dad must of transferred this love with the kidney) along with Dr. Brophy having some influence here as well (tell Dr. Brophy sorry about the Red Wings)! HA!
Trae’s story has been featured in many different ways such as the UI Children’s Hospital annual report, U of I Football Kid Captain, and you will soon see his smiling face on the newest donation requests letter. It is through these small means that we hope to continue promoting the UI Children’s Hospital across the nation as being one of the top facilities in the country for children needing medical attention, specifically the transplant program headed by Dr. Reed!
Trae’s Story
On October 18, 2007 Trae was born. He was carried full term, but was smaller than most babies at 5lbs. There was no conclusive reasoning at the beginning on his low weight and size but was sent to the NICU for about a week after he was born. During this week, Doctors noticed that Trae was losing protein in his urine and keeping electrolytes, causing his levels to be abnormally low. A nephrologist got involved at this point and ultimately diagnosed Trai with Dens Drash Syndrome, an extremely rare disease that is a mutation of the WT1 gene that causes Wilmes tumors to grow on the kidneys.
As a pre-emptive procedure, Trae underwent a kidney transplant, donated by his father, in March 2009. Trae is currently doing very well and doctors are continuing to keep their eye on his recovery.
