Very Rough Going

I have not kept this page as up to date as I would have liked too. It has been very busy here and I have been either tired or distracted or both plus all the medical stuff is so very complicated it is hard for me to put into words just what is all going on.

John is in an Intensive Care room here on the eighth floor. They have Intensive Care rooms right on the ward where he is staying as opposed to being in an Intensive Care Unit. The room that John is in now is very large and almost two rooms so when I can get my hands on a cot I should be able to tuck it into my small room and hopefully get some sleep as I am able. He was brought here for a procedure that was to hopefully help his heart and blood pressure. It failed.

Becky and John's mom are here in Seattle as well. Last night we tried having mom stay the night and figured we could spell each by staying over alternate nights. We were phoned at 3:30 in the morning because John blood oxygen levels were seemingly down plus he had a bad bleed from his bone marrow biopsy site and had to have a transfusion. We got here quick as it is not a long drive and there is no traffic at that time. It turns out that his levels were not all that horrible after all. The blood gases test showed the actual levels were acceptable. He does need to be on oxygen though. He hates the mask and he hates all the lines and apparently he just pulled out a line that was in to measure things.

I have decided that the best way to do things is that I stay here all the time now with John day and night. He wants me near at all times. They can do tag team and bring me food and clean cloths and such.

He does have an infection. His white counts are good so they figure that it should not be a problem treating whatever it is. They also figure that this could have contributed to his low blood pressure even though he is on large amounts of drugs to raise his blood pressure.

I guess the biggest problem that is there is knowing on just how much fluid to remove. They are having a big meeting today. Pulmonary Medicine guys and the cardiologists are in a bit of dispute as to whether there is too much fluid or not enough fluid so they are going to have another big meeting with everybody who is involved with his care to make decisions on what is going to be done next and make sure they are all on the same page.

John is now being fed through IV. He just was not able to take in enough calories by himself.

Pray for wisdom for the doctors. His case is extremely complicated and they are having a very hard time figuring out what the problem is. He is on a cardiac catheter. We hoped that would give them the insight that they needed but they still seem to be not sure of things. His Nephrologist did assure me this morning that they are not all idiots even if it may seem so at times.

I had some visitors from the North Seattle Alliance Church. Grace from hospital visitation came by and a couple of the elders came yesterday and prayed for John. He was sleeping at the time so I do want them to come by again and anoint him and pray. I wanted him to be awake.

John is very tired. I am not sure how much longer he will be able to fight. I am told that his heart is not working well. Almost hourly I am told different things by different doctors. It is almost impossible to update his status. I would have to say that it is extremely serious.

I am not sure if any of this makes sence. I have had to re write it a couple of times as more information comes.