Isaac appears to be better but blood test results are worse

Dear all,

Isaac looked better today. His fever finally went down to 37.1 C (98.8 F) and he looked more energetic. However, his blood test today showed that his CRP went up to 2.6. I was told that the doctor prescribed a different antibiotic for Isaac. I guess may be he is getting a bacterial infection as well? However, I didn't get to talk to a doctor today so I don't know for sure. I am just praying that his fever will stay down and that the new antibiotic will really work and Isaac is really on the road to recovery.

I spent about 2 hours with Isaac today - from 1 pm to 2 pm and from 4 pm to 5 pm. His breathing was good both times I was there and would only drop when he is crying. Because of where his IV is in his arm, he has to lie face up which he doesn't seem to like that much. So he would wake up frequently and cry and fuss. I also wonder if he might not like being back in the incubator box? It might be my imagination but quite a few times, when I see him wake up all of a sudden, he would look confused as to where he was and would look surprised and then a bit scared. Its probably my imagination. I am glad that he is able to conserve his energy to recover as it is easier for him to breathe inside the incubator and sounds are more muffled. However, because he is so much bigger now than before and he does move around a lot more, he keeps hitting his arm with the IV on the side of the incubator box and I even saw him hit his knees on the side of the incubator box a couple of times! Another thing I noticed with him basically naked again is that he has very long arms but kinda short legs so he kinda looks like a little monkey. Hee hee. I won't comment who I think he got this from. ^_^

I woke up this morning feeling under the weather too. My first thought was I hope I have a little bit of what Isaac has so that I will have the right kind of antibodies in my milk to help him. I had to take care of a few things in the morning so I had to leave the apartment pretty early. By the time I finished my 4-5 pm visit, I was drained. So I decided that it was better for Isaac that I came home instead of hanging around the hospital and stay there for the 7 pm visit since he is still get fed by nasal tube anyway. So I came home and took a nap and then ate dinner. I am glad I did that even though I do feel a bit guilty about not staying at the hospital because I really think I am fighting something as I didn't have much of an appetite at dinner (which I can assure you is not normal ^_^) and I have a headache. I bumped into Isaac's primary nurse Nurse Imai before I left who is taking the evening shift so I felt more assured as I know she takes really good care of Isaac.

Anyway, I am going to share a bunch of pictures and some video clips, including some video clips from last Sunday that I had wanted to load but never got a chance to load.

These are pictures from today. I put my hand on Isaac's chest in one of them to give some perspective so you can tell how big Isaac is:



The following are some short video clips from today:



This is a video from last Sunday, September 3. I have been wanting to post this so you can all see Isaac crying as I don't think I have taped much of his crying. He is funny because he snorts when he cries. ^_^



This is also a video from last Sunday. After we came out of the 1 pm feed last Sunday, we came upon a Japanese style parade right in front of the hospital with the locals celebrating some kind of festival. So I thought some of you might be interested to see this. The buildings you see behind the parade are part of Toho University Hospital:



Thanks for your continued prayers,

Sonia