IV Pole

White Blood Count - 420 cells/microliter
Absolute Neutrophil Count - 110 cells/microliter
Segmented neutrophils - 24.8%
Band Neutrophils - 0.9%
Lymphocytes - 46.7%
Monocytes - 23.8%
Eosinophils - 2.9%
Basophils - 0%
Metaphils - 0.9%
Myeloblast - 0%

Today was a great day. Cael slept through his ribavirin breathing treatment this morning (Yay!), then was in a very pleasant mood all day. He didn't even need the oxygen last night while he slept, and tonight looks like he won't need it either. I don't know if that is an indication of his lungs doing better, but I know he isn't doing any worse.

He still is throwing up. He did it 3 times within 30 minutes after having some formula today. The doctors were hoping to stop the Ativan, which is for the nausea. However, I don't think he is quite ready to stop it. I'm not sure if it is helping a lot, but I can just imagine how much worse it might be if he wasn't getting the Ativan.

They did stop one medicine today. They stopped the Dopamine, which was being used to help his kidneys. I guess they think that he is doing well enough that they can stop that one. From here, it sounds like they will slowly be stopping or at least reducing the number of medications he will be receiving. Here is a picture of his IV stand. He usually has all 5 of the syringe pumps (2 at top and 3 at bottom) going with different medicines, and one of the bag pumps (3 in middle, side by side) going. Sometimes 2 of the bag pumps will be going if he is receiving platelets or blood. He also has a morphine pump at the very top of the stand. So at any given time, there were at least 7 lines going into his body. 7!! Today they turned off the very bottom syringe pump, so now he only has 6. Every pump has to be plugged in, or the battery will die, so we are kind of stuck with him in that one place. At least the bed is big enough now that we can sit up there any play with him. We can unplug everything for about 2-3 hours before the batteries die, but we aren't allowed to leave the room, so  for the most part we either have him in the bed, or just on the floor in front of the pole (on mats, of course).

This evening, we enjoyed some books and some fun music and dancing. Usually, when Cael hears music he starts to bounce and sway. It takes him a minute, but almost every time he will "dance" to the music. Sometimes when we sing/say "dance and dance and dance and dance and dance", he will even start to bounce around. I think he really likes music, and is going to really enjoy dancing when he is a little bigger and able to stand and walk.