02/04/2021
Jack update # 5:
Throughout this process from the time dad landed in the ER I’ve been looking and waiting on one thing. The bottom. I needed to see him plateau and stop getting worse. His LDH numbers are through the roof,which has been a test looked at from early on in the pandemic as an initial precursor of how the patient would do. The lower the number the better and the higher the number.... you get the point. That being said my dad has always been a person that didn’t feel like rules and statistics applied to him. This morning I spoke to his lung doctor and for the first time in this ordeal I feel like he’s plateaued. Yesterday morning was the first report that he was not alert or responsive. His lung doctor told me this morning he was more alert and more responsive. His kidney function has slightly improved and his glucose levels have started to decline. His chest X-ray from yesterday noted no significant change. Now on the surface that doesn’t sound encouraging unless you consider the fact that his lungs haven’t gotten worse. There are no large pleural effusions (fluid build up between the lungs and the chest). His heart is enlarged but stable. I asked the lung doctor if his labs were indicative of someone who’s body and organs were in the beginning stages of shutting down. His answer was yes, but he assured me they would treat those issues accutely as they arise. He is not on a ventilator. He is one step from it, but not there. He’s still on bipap at 100% but his O2 saturation is holding in the low 90’s and he doesn’t appear to be laboring to breath. His respiration count is still in the low 30’s and we really need for that to come down. It takes an extreme amount of effort and energy to take 30 breaths a minute for four days. Try to do it for five minutes. I did. It’s exhausting. That’ll give you a good idea of the extreme amount of work he’s doing. I’m glad he is but it comes at a cost that he can’t afford to pay much longer without being intubated or worse. It’s a fine line these doctors are walking. They want him to work but not to the point it puts his heart and other vital organs at risk. Ventilation is the last hope. You don’t want to put them on too soon but you also don’t want to wait until he’s obliterated himself and it’s too late to help. It must be an agonizing decision for these doctors to have to make with limited data that changes weekly. The next day or two, in my humble opinion with the amount of knowledge I’ve been able to acquire in five or six days, are critical. It needs to be now. Positive progress. That’s what we’re praying and hoping for. I am monitoring his labs and some are better than others. I’m not going to mask that fact. We’ve been informed that if he recovers from this point it would be surprising, they didn’t say miraculous but surprising. I can work with that. Thank you for your continued inquiries and support. Prayer is powerful. My head hasn’t convinced my heart that our time with him is over.
