Isaac got worse today

Dear all,

Isaac isn't doing so well today. He is having a really hard time breathing. Its one thing if his SpO2 levels drop suddenly and he can recover on his own quickly. Its another thing when his SpO2 levels drop and stay down for a long time even though he is peaceful and resting. That's what was happening today. His SpO2 levels dropped to the low 60s for quite a while and they stayed in the low 70s for quite a while. We had a few nurses staying around us all very concerned and eventually the attending doctor Dr. Kawase (who was Rachel's doctor) came over and said that we need to increase the O2 going through Isaac's nasal cannular from 30% to 40%. Dr. Kawase said that Isaac's CRP went down today to 0.2 but he is still having a lot of difficulty breathing so he said that what Isaac has is not bacterial but viral. Therefore, they will probably stop the antibiotic IV tomorrow. He said the only way to treat Isaac right now is to give him more oxygen.

We did have kind of a God moment today. Jong and I have been singing the same few Christian songs to Isaac since he was born. One of Isaac's favorite is "I love you, Lord". We figured that it is his favorite since we saw him smile a few times when we sang this to him while he was in NICU (unfortunately, he doesn't smile much anymore since he moved to GCU - I think its because its too noisy and bright in there). In any case, this was towards the tail end of my visit tonight. Isaac was still breathing really poorly so the nurse decided to put Isaac on my chest in the kangaroo position. Isaac's breathing still didn't improve. After a little while, I decided to start singing "I love you, Lord" to him, almost immediately after I started singing to him, his SpO2 went up to the 90s and stayed there the entire time I was singing (I started singing other Christian songs too). After his SpO2 stayed up for a while, the nurse wanted to move him back onto the bed because it was getting way past the end of visiting hours. His SpO2 went back down after she put him down and I stopped singing. It was a little while after that when the nurse got Dr. Kawase to come over and the decision was made to increase Isaac's O2. Okay, I don't think it was because I am a good singer. I am not and I wasn't singing well tonight. I would like to think and it warms my heart to think that our little Isaac already loves our Lord and loves singing praise songs with his mommy.

Please pray that Isaac can be strong enough to fight off this cold virus. Fortunately, he only has a low grade fever. In a way, I think this has been a good but sobering learning erxperience -- I have read a lot about how important it is to "quarantine" Isaac and ourselves this winter so he doesn't get sick (and so that we won't get him sick). I now have first hand experience and truly understand how important this is. If a common cold virus can make him this sick, I don't want to know what something more serious can do to him.

Also, because of Isaac's poor condition, I won't be get to bathe Isaac this weekend nor will Isaac get to suckle directly from me for the first time this weekend.

Thank you for your prayers,

Sonia