Saturday, January 17, 2004 4:29 PM CST

Yesterday there were a couple of minor setbacks in Aidan's medical progress here. First, Aidan had a CT scan which showed that he still has some blood in his ventricles. So the neurosurgeons want to hold off on clamping his external shunts until more of the blood clears. So during this weekend Aidan will be basically on hold. Of course the externalized shunts are an ongoing infection risk, and he is immunesuppressed. SO we're looking forward to Monday when there will be another CT scan which will hopefully show less evidence of blood.

Also, Aidan was quite sleepy yesterday. In a way this was understandable after his 36 hour marathon of awake time, but since sleepiness is a neurological sign, it concerned us a little. Today he is still sleepy but is having more awake times and talks normally when he is awake.

Because he is getting so many blood draws, up to 3 or 4 in a day, the IV nurse tried to put in a more permanent IV line, a PIK line (SP?)which would have allowed them to draw blood without needle pokes but did not have success. They are trying to cut back and consolidate his labs as much as possible, but of course each needle is very difficult for the little one.

He got a good bed bath yesterday, which he enjoyed, and a quick haircut with hospital scissors. Paddy's walking around the Family Resource Room right now and has discovered where they keep the tea bags...I'd better go.