Round 2 of Antibody

Hooray!  We are finally in the hospital and Cameron has began round two of his antibody therapy.  After four long weeks of testing his enzymes, getting my hopes up and being disappointed, I was more than a little relieved to learn that Cameron's enzymes had dropped to 186 yesterday.  This morning, they had dropped even further, to 147! 

Last week, we decided that we had tried everything else that had been suggested and it had all failed, so the only thing that was left was to take Cameron off his formula.  As you know, he is such a tiny little mite and although he eats well, he struggles to put on weight.  But we had to try something!  Cameron's doctors had various opinions as to whether the formula might be causing his liver to work a bit harder than it needed to, some were convinced that taking him off the formula was a waste of time and would possibly be to his detriment, if he lost weight, but others were open minded and thought it was worth a try.  The thinking behind taking him off the formula was that nutritional supplements contain relatively large amounts of lipids and carbohydrates, both of which can put added pressure on an already irritated liver, thereby causing the enzymes to elevate.  We switched him over to skim milk and continued to give him a lower fat diet for the week.  The drastic drop in enzymes has me convinced that it must have been the formula - at least in part.  Amazingly, Cameron did not lose any weight this week and maintained his 11.2 kilograms (24 pounds).

Whether it was the formula or just taking an extra week to recover, it doesn't matter - the enzymes are down and we are here, getting the treatment he needs.

So far, this round has been very easy on him.  I was told that this week would not take much of a toll on his little body, but next week would be a different story and I should prepare myself for high fevers and terrible pain for poor little Cameron, among other possible side effects.  But, so far, so good. 
He has had a great appetite and has been in good spirits all day, his boundless energy has left me completely exhausted this evening as he played happily through his nap time today and has had me running after him with his IV pole as he did laps around the ward. 

For the first time since he was diagnosed, he asked me several times today where his brother was.  He even broke his banana in half and asked me to give half to James.  I keep telling him that James isn't here and he nods and says "oh" as if he just forgot.  I took him to bath this evening and he called out "come on James!!", then looked at me questioningly and asked "Baby bath?".  Urgh!  My heart shattered!

James has been missing Cameron just as much, but thankfully he is being very well taken care of by my lovely sister, Gina.  She has been keeping him very entertained and with the help of my dear friend, Leigh, they have already been on two outings and it's definitely helping to keep his mind off the fact that Cameron and I are not there.  Unfortunately, it seems that James is coming down with a cold - this seems to be a recurring theme.  So often, when Cameron goes into hospital, James gets sick.  Several people have said to me that it's a "twin thing", that he feels what Cameron feels in a way - and I know that that has some truth to it.  Twice, when the boys were babies, I took Cameron for a blood test, James was in his car seat, facing away from Cameron.  On both occasions, as soon as they put the needle in Cameron's arm, James screamed.  Cameron barely flinched - but James cried as if it was his blood being drawn.  There was no way that he could see what was being done to Cameron and he wasn't reacting to Cameron's crying, because Cameron was perfectly still and not making a sound!  I guess, unless you are a twin, that bond is something the rest of us will never fully understand.
 I hate not being there for him when he is not feeling well, but it gives me much peace of mind to know that he is with his Auntie Gina, who loves him dearly and is taking great care of him!