Dad has had a rough 12 to 15 hours. The reprieve from the diarrhea lasted less than 24 hours. Yesterday afternoon he had two bouts and then 3 last night. He had another small one this morning. His white count has gone up to 18.9 today. He is on the biPap and 80% oxygen. He tried to go back to the other masks but cannot hold his sat numbers.
We all gathered this morning in his room so that we could talk to the doctors. They have lots of options but no real answers. They decided to change his antibiotics to see if they can fight the infection, but they don't know where it is. The cultures from his diarrhea and his sputum are both negative. They have talked about bronchoscopies and other procedures but they wouldn't do any of it unless they intubate him again. If he maintains this oxygen level, they may decide to do an ecmo where they take blood out, oxygenate it and then put it back in. (They brought this up earlier but then he was intubated and we thought he wouldn't need it). The ecmo would allow his lung to rest while they figure out the other stuff.
Dad wanted us to write down all of the options and then Don explained them to him. He wrote back that he does not want to live on machines. We all acknowledged that and agree. Please pray for wisdom - for the doctors, for us etc. He is extremely weak and tired. He hates this biPap machine but knows that he needs it. He can't swallow any of his meds so they are filling up his I.V. pole again so he can get what he needs through his PIC line.
I don't need to tell you that we are all tired. Mom is struggling and really wants to know what he is thinking. She wants to talk to him. Please pray for her - she told us that her heart is breaking.
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