there’s not much to report today, as eric is slept soundly through much of his 33rd day and the nurses more or less sensitively told us and his other visitors that we shouldn’t disturb him too much – which, of course, means no lights and hence, no pictures. he had very few alarms, although his ‘oooohs’ from his cpap machine are still cranked up to 30-40%, as he still doesn’t seem to be able to cruise along on room air.

speaking of cpap ( continuous positive airway pressure, a type of respiratory aid – for the many of you who haven’t been following along from the beginning ), i thought i might try to capture what the experience is like from eric’s perspective. you might think that he’s bothered by bells and alarms and clanging all day long, but at least as long as he’s on cpap, i suspect that all he can hear is the very loud white noise produced by the air rushing through his mask. so i stuck the ibook mic near his head and recorded a minute of the sounds of cpap and overlayed it on one of the few shots that i was able to get today. if he looks like he’s wincing a little and trying to cover his hears, now you know why.

if you listen closely you can hear the muffled sounds of nurses talking while standing at the bed next to his, which is about 6 feet away. turn the volume up and put on some headphones to get the full effect, while trying to imagine enduring the sounds 24 hours a day.