Sunday, January 18, 2004 4:04 PM CST

Hi! Today, being Sunday, things are quiet here at UCSF. I am in the cafeteria internet kiosk typing this quick update while Aidan dozes upstairs in the PICU and Kevin and Paddy go outside for a walk.

Aidan is doing better today than he has been for the past couple of days. His heartrate is returning to normal, he hasn't run a fever for 3 days, and though he is still sleeping a lot, he has good awake times when he plays and talks a little and eats little bites of hospital food. His favorite is chicken nuggets. He has some little toys from the Childlife playroom which entertain him for a little while, but his main activity besides sleeping is probably watching videos and asking us to brush his nose with a surgical scrub brush. It actually is more soothing than it sounds, try it sometime.

The neurosurgeons are aware that he is not acting quite "baseline" in doctor's terms and they mentioned that the blood in his ventricles might be responsible for his changed behavior. If this is correct, he should return to normal as the blood is absorbed or drained.

Not much new today -- tomorrow he will probably have the followup CT and then they will probably try to wean him from the two externalized shunts he has currently.

Kevin and I (Willa) are somewhat tired but doing OK especially as Aidan seems more like himself -- the last couple of days were kind of difficult.

Grandpa Fortuine is flying home to Alaska at this very moment but Grandma Fortuine has extended her reservations to stay on until next Saturday. The way it looks now, the very earliest Aidan can get out is next Friday, if he has surgery on Wednesday and his recovery time is optimal. We'll see.

Thanks everyone for all the good wishes and prayers. I should mention that I can't send or receive email at UCSF so if you have sent a message to my private email, I probably can't answer it until I return to Shaver Lake. Same with Kevin, of course.