Another Tough Day

Dear all,

Jong and I were pretty much in shock this morning over all the things we learned last night. The whole day went by like a blur for me as things were quite busy at work as well. We ended up getting to the hospital late because of some miscommunication, bad weather and horrible traffic (sometimes we drive to the hospital instead of taking the trains - on hindsight, we should have taken the trains tonight). In any case, we arrived and noticed that Isaac had an IV again. We asked about the IV and learned that his blood test today showed an infectious score of 0.6 so they started giving him antibiotics again. I felt so discouraged. It seemed like nothing was going right (my nasty cough also doesn't seem to be improving). We only got to spend 30 minutes with Isaac tonight. It was very tough to look at how sweetly he was sleeping knowing that he has to go through such a difficult surgery in a week.

We then met with the anesthesiologist who turned out to speak the best English out of all the doctors we have met so far. We ended up asking him a few more questions that were more general than specific to Isaac's general anesthesia. During the meeting, we learned that Toho University Hospital just does not do PDA ligation via laparoscopy like they do in the U.S. We don't really know why that is as from what we know, the laparoscopy approach seems to be a much quicker and less invasive surgery. However, we also know God put us at Toho for some reason and Isaac has done well under their care so far. I mean, we don't even know if Isaac would be a candidate for the laparoscopy approach because of his condition and the size of his PDA even if we were in the States. In addition, the surgeon really does seem to be well respected by the other doctors at Toho. I forgot to mention when I posted last night that the surgeon told us that he has performed microscopic heart surgery on mice many times and has always been successful.

In any case, it has been very tough. However, we are trying our best to surrender to God and trust in Him. Please pray for Isaac's infection to be healed asap and for his infectious score to go down to zero soon.

Take care and good night,

Sonia