mike's pneumonia chronicles #14

(Mike, it’s aunt Jackie writing tonight.) It’s been 5 days since the last update and for the most part this has been a pretty good week for you. In most areas you continue to make baby steps forward and in others you go forward and back again keeping the ICU staff and all of us that love you on our toes.

When we step into your room there is a lot that looks the same. You are still on lots of IV’s, you still have a ventilator breathing for you, and you go through dialysis every day. There are lots of changes though that are occurring even though initially things may appear the same.

This week the doctors started you on a tube feeding through your nose. You had one a few weeks ago and couldn’t tolerate it. They started it the same as before, 10 cc per hour which is about 2 tsp. The last time they did it you couldn’t digest it because of how sick you were. Now you are digesting it and every time they check to see if there is any residual left in your stomach there isn’t. Each day they are increasing the rate by 10 cc per hour. Today you are up to 30 cc an hour. If you continue to tolerate the feeding they will increase to 60 cc per hour and then decrease the IV’s that have been providing the nutrition for you so far on this journey.

The doctors are also decreasing and discontinuing some of the medications that had been vital in keeping you alive. They stopped 1 of your antibiotics and today they decreased the morphine and versed that have kept you sedated and prevent you from fighting the ventilator. You are still on enough to keep you pretty sedated but are able to wake up enough to mouth what looks like “I love you” to Barbara, wince when you don’t like what’s being done to you, wiggle your fingers and toes on command, and push your foot against my hand like an accelerator on a car. You wake up a few times a day for a few or up to 10 minutes at a time. Barbara reassures you and tells you where you are and what has happened to you, that she is with you and loves you. We are told that from the medications you won’t remember this part of your illness but you still are experiencing the moment and need the love a reassurance as things happen whether you remember it or not. Barbara has been so loving and so faithful in her daily presence at your bedside.

The other positives are that you have been maintaining pretty normal vital signs with assistance. We are almost afraid to feel too confident since it was only a few weeks ago that it took frequent interventions to assure that you were alive at all. Now you have oxygen levels in the 90’s and most of the time your pulse and blood pressure are normal and when they aren’t they respond to intervention quickly instead of the hours or days that it took before.

You are still on daily dialysis but you are also still making a little urine and the labs that measure your kidney function are improving. We are hopeful that when they take you off one of the antibiotics that is hard on the kidneys that yours will start working again.

Your pneumonia is improved to the point that they can’t see it on the x-rays anymore. They are continuing the antibiotics until they can be sure that you are over the infection. Your lungs on the right side still have a hole in them and until that heals the doctors have had a challenge keeping them from having a partial collapse. One day the collapse is improved and the next it is worse again. You still have a long way to go and are still providing the doctors and nurses with a lot to do.

So Mike, we continue to pray for you daily, support you with our love and presence and hope each day you will take another baby step forward in your recovery.

(Hi Mike, it’s Barbara now.)
Today Jane came to visit in your hospital room and then to have lunch with Jackie and me. She brought me a really special gift. Her friend Nancy, who you may remember from a few different gatherings at Jane and Bill’s house, knitted a really beautiful soft-yarn purple prayer shawl for me. She said that it has loving thoughts and prayers knitted into each stitch – and it was passed around last weekend and each person holding it said a special prayer for your recovery. I wrapped it around me today in your hospital room and even though I didn’t feel very cold before, it brought a new feeling of warmth to me. I touched it to your hand to feel the softness, and I held your hand and silently prayed for the hole in your lung to seal itself. It was so scary to hear Dr. Kumar speak about your collapsed lung looking a little worse on today’s x-ray, and as Jackie said there have been a lot of little ups as well as downs along this road to recovery.

I miss you so much. Today Joey and Julia “marched” in a dress-up Halloween parade at preschool. I went to watch them and I took some pictures and video for you. Julia is a bumble bee (the costume we bought for her last year on clearance) and Joey is Darth Vader. Joey remembers trick-or-treating from last year! He was only three, but he really does remember it. You always make such a big time of Halloween, that I feel especially mournful that you are missing your fun day tomorrow. Goodnight, Mike. Sweet dreams.

Oh yes… I didn’t want to forget to tell you something you did today… you blew me a kiss! Josh, your friend from math class was there, so was Jackie. You woke up a couple of minutes before we had to all leave for the evening. I was talking to you and Josh told you to blow me a kiss, and you did! I love you Mike.