Greg Covid - Day 11

Kind of a long update because I spoke with hospital staff three times today.  Not because there was anything bad, but I was starting to slip into a bit of depression, and I just needed to be reassured that Greg was OK.

 I spoke with Greg's nurse, Maureen early this morning and she said that Greg had a good night and she didn’t make many changes to anything.  She had to go up a little bit on oxygen, from 50 to 60%.  His breathing didn’t change, but  his oxygen saturation was dropping, so they had to go up.  She was not sure why that happened.  His temp most of the night was between 100 and 100.4.  His sedation had been turned up, but she was able to turn it down and he was doing fine.  She said they may continue to reduce his sedation.   

Just after lunch, I spoke with Greg's nurse, Martin.  He said that Greg was having an OK day.    His vent was up to 70 when he got there, but it's now down to 60, and while we were talking, the respiratory therapist was there, and turned it down to 55%.  The took three cultures today, because Greg is still battling some sort of infection.  He had a central line because of the blood pressure meds, but I never knew that.  The took that central line out today and are just using two regular IVs.   Martin said they took it out just in case there’s an infection in the line.  He called it infection “risk mgmt.”.   Greg had a new chest x-ray taken this morning, and it's still pretty much the same as the last one.   Martin said that Greg is pretty comfortable looking and doesn’t seem to be working too hard to breathe.  Martin had him almost in a sitting-type position today and he seemed comfortable with that, too.  He also shaved him, which I thought was very nice.   

They also did an echocardiogram of his heart today and are looking at the valves to make sure there’s not an infected heart valve.   I don't have those results yet.   

At about 5 p.m., the doctor called me.   She asked me how I was doing, and I said I was doing kind of OK, but seeing as the doctors only call me when there's bad news, I was a bit worried.  She very quickly assured me that there was no bad news and she just wanted to update me on Greg.

Greg is stable.  He is not improving, but he is not getting worse, which is good.  He is not requiring more oxygen which is good.  We want to find the source of infection, which is why he’s on broad spectrum antibiotics.   The vent is on a more supportive mode at night, which means he's breathing more on his own.  They will continue to try to decrease support every day to see how he is doing, so basicaly, they want to wean a little bit more and more each day.   She said it's good news that he’s doing the same as yesterday and that it may take a little longer for him because of his diaphragm.  He has covid pneumonia, which also causes longer periods of intubation.  

I asked the doctor about giving Greg the antibodies of someone who had covid, and she said that they can only try the antibodies if they are not very sick.  Obviously, that's not Greg.  

I also spoke to the doctor about Greg's IVIG treatment.  That's the human immune globulin treatments that I give Greg every week.  It has kept him from getting sick for the last three years.  Immune Globulin comes from people who donate plasma.  Greg's infusions are, very simply, other people's antibodies to help keep him from getting sick because of his compromised immune system.   If Greg has an infection or something like that, wouldn't his IVIG infusions help fight that?  The doctor didn't seem to think so, because covid is a virus, but I'm pretty darn sure that anything that can possibly help boost his immune system can help him fight this horrible virus!  It's part of his normal medications, so he should receive it, just like all his other normal medications.  The doctor is going to speak with the rest of the team and see what they think.  As far as I'm concerned, if they can't provide me with a darn good reason as to why he should not receive his infusion, then he is going to get the infusion, whether they think it will help or not.   

It's now almost midnight and I've spoken to Greg's night nurse Julie.  He is still about the same.  His O2 is at 92%, which is good, and his blood pressure is still good.  So, while he is still the same, this is good news, because he's not getting worse or going backwards. 

Please continue your prayers for Greg!   

For tonight's picture, I'm posting one of the two of us together, kind of!  For years, when Greg would take video, if he walked past a mirror, he'd wave and say "hi."  He began doing that with still pictures too, and if he was looking at his shadow on the ground, he'd wave.  It became a running joke.  In the picture below, I am walking on the beach of the Coral Sea at night in Port Douglas.  It's a fuzzy picture because it's dark out and all he has is his cell phone, but you can clearly see his shadow waving!  Ha, ha!