Monday, May 01, 2006

Why Do They Keep Calling Me a Monkey?

I have had many people ask me why I refer to Parker as a monkey, so I figure I owe them an explanation. When Parker first came home from the hospital when he was born we would put him to bed in his Winnie the Pooh room each night. Of course, my wife and I are both tech-savy so we bought one of those baby monitors for his room. That way we could listen to him if he started crying in the night. We would of course swaddle Parker nice and tight before we put him down to sleep and then we ourselves would go to bed. Every night, just as we were about to fall asleep, we would here this sound coming from the monitor. Eeeee, Eeeeee, Eeeee. And then it would stop. Then, Eeeeee, Eeeee, Eeeeeee. Wondering what was going on, I would get up and go and check on my child making this strange monkey sound. When I would get into his room I would notice my son trying to wiggle his arms out of his swaddle. It was from then on that we refered to Parker as our little monkey. My wife and I would like to thank Krista who was kind enough to send Parker his cool looking monkey sleeper all the way from England. Thank you so much Krista, Parker has gotten so many compliments from the nurses about his new outfit.

I had mentioned in a previous article that I was going to begin uploading video of Parker for people to watch. If you scroll down on the right side of the screen you should see a section called "Recent Video of Parker". If you click on the links you will get a 10 - 20 second clip of Parker that you can watch from your computer. If anyone has difficulties viewing the clips please let me know.

The contest on babiesonline has finally ended. They have not posted the winner yet on their site so we can only hope that it is our little boy, Parker. Whether he wins or not, he will always be the cutest baby to me.

Parker had his Pentamidine this morning through an IV in his head again. Recall that Parker takes this medication every two weeks to keep him from getting PCP pneumonia. He used to take Septra for that but the doctors felt that that was the reason for Parker becoming neutropenic (low neutrophils). It has been three weeks since being off Septra and he is still neutropenic. The doctors now feel it may be related to the ADA. If it is, then it is a result of the dATP (toxins) in his body killing off these cells. The PEG-ADA, which I believe he is starting on Wednesday, should aliviate this problem. Parker cannot be neutropenic to take part in the gene therapy trial. The doctors are not worried about Parker being neutropenic by the time he is to go to Italy. The haemotologist will be checking Parker to see if the immunologists are missing anything. I have yet to read that ADA causes neutropenia but we all know I will continue to research that.

Lastly, Parker has found a new friend. I am not sure if his other friends on his mobile are jealous but Parker now thinks his saturation monitor is the most amusing thing in his room. My wife made up a game with him where they run to the monitor (she runs, he hangs on), say boo, and run away. Parker thinks it is hilarious. I hope this does not mean my son is going to be addicted to television. Oh well, whatever makes the little guy happy.

1 comment:

Elizabeth said...

Hello Parker darling!

Omigosh, can't get to the computer all weekend and back I come to see you in a darling monkey outfit (What a nice (and fitting!) gift, Krista!) and also, the piece de resistance - starring YOU in a video! It is so great to see you in action and to hear the cute little sounds that you make. I can't wait till you can come home to Mommy and Daddy and receive visitors. I can't wait to meet you in person.

Keep strong, Parker! You can do it - and before you know it, you'll be at home with mom and dad.

Until later,
Elizabeth xo