September 12th

Sorry I haven't updated in a few days, but things have been busy/stressful here! I will try to pick up where I left off before. They never did image his bones, as a bone infection seems unlikely at this point. His hand starting swelling again (it had done so a few weeks ag0), but luckily this time it didn't get quite as bad. However, since the PICC was in that arm this time, they decided to pull the line, as it had also stopped drawing back blood. This proved to be a problem, as peripheral sticks don't work on him, so we have not been able to culture with any recent fevers. When they pulled his line, they decided to stop all his antibiotics a couple days early since he seemed to be doing well. I had mixed feelings about this given what happened last time his antibiotics ended and his line was pulled. Today they cultured two wounds that had been draining and smelly to see if there are any new skin infections (we kind of expect the same old ones to still be showing up). He has been cranky, and pretty sleepy too. He is borderline for needing another blood transfusion, for which another line would have to be placed. Though it will be hard even to get enough blood to check! We will see what happens in the next few days, I guess...

Developmentally Raul continues to improve! He is now saying "uh oh" and working on a few others. He also started making a dinosaur noise a couple days ago when Child Life gave him two toy dinosaurs, which is super cute. He bangs two toys together, transfers between hands, reaches, puts things in and out of containers, turns pages of books, stands with assistance or while holding onto something, is working on the crawling position, and will often walk his feet forward if you hold him standing. He is just so smart! He figures out toys so quickly, and is getting more persistent with them. When he sees a new toy, you can just see it in his face that he is already trying to figure it all out. Also, he is a big old flirt, and gets everyone to play "fetch" with him (where he throws toys and you have to go get them, and the harder it is for you, the better), dance to his musical toys, talk in "Raul talk", play hide and seek around his crib, and many other silly things! As long as you don't try to make him do something he doesn't want to do, he is pretty happy despite all the medical stuff :)