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| In the ER waiting for Jon to be admitted. |
Hello everyone. Its Laura. I am updating Jon’s blog since he is unable to.
As many of you are
already aware, Jon had to be incubated and put on a ventilator to help
him breathe yesterday. So that you understand where that is coming
from, here’s what’s been going on.
Earlier last week Jon was
admitted to the hospital because he had a fever of 103.7. This
unfortunately was being caused by two viruses, CMV and VRE. These two
viruses are in the blood stream and harder to treat. He had been on
antibiotics to get his immune system strong enough to fight it at home,
but it just was not working. They also added an antiviral and an
antifungal to the mix to cover everything - they refer to that as the
trifecta.
Unfortunately this was
not helping and they had to admit him. The picture above is when we
were waiting for Rob and Loree to come get Hayden. We were fortunate to
have them there to help us, and also that Hayden got to spend some
additional time with Jon.
While in the hospital Jon
was still getting fevers. They were dramatically up and down. This
was concerning since he was on everything they could give him. So they
decided to do some exploring and see if they missed something. The only
thing they could find was mild Pneumonia, which was probably residual
from the Pneumonia he had 3 weeks ago because it looked exactly the
same. They began treating him for that, but overnight on Saturday we
noticed his breathing was getting more shallow. Overnight he was
walking to the bathroom and had to be caught by one of the nurses
because his blood pressure and O2 levels dropped down to 66%. At this
point he was on mandatory bed restrictions. He could not get out of bed
without assistance.
I came down on Sunday, to
find my hubby happily watching the Bronco game. But when they scored
and he started cheering, he began to cough and could not stop. From
that point forward anything would make him have a coughing fit, so they
put him on Adavan and Oxy for the pain it was causing. They decided to
do another chest xray and CT scan. Both were clear of anything new -
just the Pneumonia that was already there. But it looked better? (Hes a
mystery of science!)
Through Sunday night his
breathing was getting worse. His resting O2 rate was around 89% and
when he would just turn his head to talk to me it would drop down
dramatically to 70-75%. This was starting to get scary. They added a
rescue mask (Oxygen mask) on top of his nose O2. He was still having
trouble breathing through the night. Several times he dropped down into
the red zone and they had to rush in. The next morning, Monday, he
could not catch his breath. He was on 4-5 liters of Oxygen before and
now it was increased to 11-15 liters and he was still only at 88% O2.
So they decided it was best to get him down the ICU. While they were
preparing for him to go, his O2 levels dropped like a rock. I was
standing in the hallway with a cart full of our stuff while I watched
people running in. This was so scary. They added a portable O2 container
to his bed and rushed him down the ICU. I followed with the cart. I
could tell which room he was in because there were several doctors,
nurses and respiratory staff husseling and busseling around one room.
As I walked in they were preparing to do a bronchoscopy. This was a
procedure to get into his lungs and see what was going on.
I was happy that they
sedated him for just a little while. The poor thing was wearing down.
About 1/2 hour later they were done. The pulmonologist came out to talk
to me and told me that they did find blood in his lungs. The amount was
not large, but enough that it was coming back out through their tubes.
I went back into Jons
room and waited. When he woke he began to struggle breathing again.
Unfortunately they could not figure out why his lungs were bleeding. The
CMV and VRE levels were dramatically decreased and his lungs sounded
great. Where it was coming from or what was causing it. The chest xray
and CT scan was performed again and looked the same. This was so
frustrating.
Monday night was the
worst. Poor Jon was struggling to breath and so tired. Any little
movement would cause what looked like a panic attack. They would calm
him down and have him take a semi-deep breath. I remember waking up at
about 4am when the nurses where in there saying to Jon “we need you to
breath” and I looked up to see a bagging device on his mouth. They then
put him on something called a b-pap machine. It was a face mask that
seals tightly around his nose and mouth and pushes air into his lungs.
He was so uncomfortable.
He was still struggling to breath. Even with this machine on he was at
92%. His heart was racing and he was exhausted. The decision was then
made by Jon and I to put him on the ventilator. This was the hardest
decision we have ever had to make. I love him so much and did not want
this to happen, but if you saw how he could catch his breath and was
struggling to breath you would understand.
After calling a few people, saying our prayers and then saying “talk to you in awhile” I was asked to leave the room...
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Now comes today... he was
at 90% oxygen and 20% pressure (to allow his lung sac to open) when
they first put him on the vent. He is sedated and comfortable. He will
respond to my hand when I touch him and his blood pressure, etc would
calm down. This has helped tremendously when they have to do
something. His O2 levels looked much better last night. The goal is to
wean him off the O2 and sedation.
By this morning they
have turned his O2 down to 50% (that’s 50% from the machine and 50% from
him) this is great news and something I am very happy to start the day
with! His pressure was turned down to 10% also and his chest sounds
more clear. His CT scan also is showing “improvement” with his
pneumonia. The doctors are saying they think he just needed a break.
The accumulation of not eating, having pneumonia and coughing so hard
just wore him out.
Everyday they do
something called a “sedation vacation”. This is when they turn off the
sedation and see how he responds. He is doing fantastic today so far.
They turned if off at 4:00am and so far he has moved his foot a little!
Yay, my Jonny is in there somewhere. He also frowed his eyebrow when
they turned him. They have told me that he will respond more to
familiar with sounds and voices to I have naturally been letting him
know that I am here and saying and doing the stuff he recognizes.
This has been an
emotional roller coaster! My goodness and I am just happy that maybe we
gave him what he needed, even if its been so terribly hard.
Thank you for all of your
prayers - obviously they are working! God has been here for us through
this whole thing and I believe he is very close right now. If Jon could
talk right now he would say “thanks”.
And thank you to my
wonderful brother, who has been thrown into parenthood all of a sudden.
We appreciate you Uncy B and so does Hayden!
As Jon would say... “remember if you think life is good it will be!”