Liam is going through a phase where he wants diapers put on everything. He gets the diapers from the changing table in his room and he carries them all over the house with whatever he wants me to diaper. Then he'll make the "help" sign, and hand me the diaper and the thing and away we go. Over the past week or so I've been asked to diaper teddy bear, Dapper Dan dress-up doll, polar bear, train (I said that trains don't wear diapers) and, tonight, bug. The diapers don't stay on long, he is really engaged in watching them go on and then pulling them off and then asking me to put them on again. I have no idea what this is about except I hope it is some kind of sign that toilet training is near. It's a little tiresome, to tell you the truth. Plus we end up with these crumpled diapers all over the downstairs and even though I know, know, know they are clean, it gives me a sort of visceral shock each time I see one on the floor under the dining room table.
Not much changed for Will at the hospital today, so that's good and bad. He fell early, early this morning when making his way to the bathroom and the nurses made a big deal out of it, and he didn't like that, so when I got there to check things out he was pretty unhappy. It actually sounded kind of like kind of a bad fall and a big deal when they described it to me over the phone; but the doctors think probably some combination of not quite right blood pressure / blood sugar / fluids and it is dark, and he's been inactive, and he's sick, and don't forget he lost his vestibular system. His blood pressure was sort of all over the place this morning but is stable now and back in the normal range.
So, now begins the long recovery. They think they're treating all the stuff that they can treat (there's no treatment for the original parainfluenza viral infection), he is responding well clinically in that his demand for oxygen is staying the same or going down, his fevers are down, and he reports feeling some better, although tired. We just have to hope that all these drugs keep working and Will can get his strength back sooner rather than later. The hospital is a dangerous, bug-infected place to be especially if your immune system is suppressed, so we'd like him home as soon as it is safe for him to be here. (And, of course, I have to figure out how to make home safer, since Liam and I undoubtedly vectored in the bug that made him sick in the first place.)
I saw Will's regular pulmonary doctor in the hall as I was leaving this evening. Thank you medical scheduling powers that be, Will's regular doctor is also covering the hospital this weekend. So, he was going to check on Will tonight and Saturday and Sunday. Ann will go up tomorrow and we'll see about Sunday. Will's regular doctor asked me how Will was doing and when I replied "medium" he said "well, this really knocks you on your butt; he's not going to just bounce back, it will take a while for him to feel better." This is both encouraging, in the sense that the expectation is for Will to get better, it will just take a while, and sobering since Will probably won't develop normal antibodies to this virus, and it's everywhere, which means he could get it again from me or Liam or whoever.
Thank you to GG and Grandpa DH for taking such good care of Liam all day (again) and sending me home with dinner tonight. I really needed it.
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