DAY 68

Dopey just went gai-gai today, to CT Scan his head, chest and abdominal. So he's in quite a good mood. Was playing and smiling with me a while ago, and has just fallen asleep.

He has really grown up during his stay in the hospital. From a newborn who cries at anything to a more 'knowing' baby -- he now communicates with his big big eyes, he pouts, he smiles, he grins, he says hello with a slight tilt of his head and makes the "tsneh" sound, he does the "i'm so poor thing why aren't you picking me up" sob, he knows when you are going to cause him pain or discomfort and he protests violently first by crying real loud, he scolds docs and nurses who prick him with the needle, sometimes he gets so angry that even after he has quieten down when you hold and rock him he still must get the last word in to make sure you know he's not happy about the situation -- you know when you watch movies, one of the production houses uses that lion that growls while circling its head? Dopey does that, but his version is a grouchy cub version -- tickling us to death rather than impose any fear.

Can't wait to see the scan results, hopefully there's some good news later when the doc comes around for the pm round. They also took lots of blood on Wed for tests. Heard yest that his infection markers are down, which is good. But need more time for the test results to come back. They topped up his blood too as his platelets are low. Yest, docs did the skin biopsy of 2 of the chest nodules and also extracted his bone marrow (from the left low leg) for testing. His condition has been quite the same these few days: temp will spike up about once daily; he'll vomit once or twice a day; they removed and then put back the TPN after his weight fell.

I informed docs about the 2 oval spots i spied in the centre of the left pupil, and they diagnosed them as scars. Suspect they are from infection rather than abrasion bcos of the even 'nice' shapes, but docs can't tell us the cause. One of the ovals is still 'open', so he's on antibiotic eyedrops to prevent it from worsening. He will also need long term drops to dilute his left pupil more so that his left vision is not blocked by the scars and cause lazy eye. He will also need regular eye checks till he's 8 or thereabouts. And he's likely to have astimagnism bcos his cornea is not smooth and even now.

Weight: 3.7kg (yay! that's an increase of 0.3kg from Mon)