8:14am Jennifer Muszik UPDATE:
He had a good night.
- The dialysis is working. They are able to pull the fluids they are giving him. Plus, they were able to take off 1 blood pressure med and his BP is holding strong.
- The first creatinine (kidney function) reading after starting dialysis showed improvement – from 7.5 to 6.5. The goal is back around 1.
- His oxygen level has increased to 107 so they were able to bring his oxygen percent back down to 80% but still needing lots of help expanding his lungs. Yesterday, it had dropped to 54, so they had to up his oxygen to 100% and increase the pressure to open his lungs.
- Our next concern is the rash. The one on his back is starting to slough off. They will switch his bed to make it easier to watch & clean. The two worries with this are infection and the potential fluid loss. This can affect his blood pressure so having the one presser completely off gives us room to add it if needed.
- They will wake him up a bit today to ensure he can wake up and then put him back to sleep. I have asked to be in there to see his eyes.
- I appreciate the prayers for all of the family. We all did sleep a bit & they kept him alive and some small improvements.
- I’ll send more when I know. Thank you for continued prayers.
2:22pm Jennifer Muszik UPDATE: Paul is still resting comfortably. That is my new way of saying sedated. When I spoke to him earlier, he moved his eyebrows and tried to blink. I know he is in there and he can hear me. But, we need him to rest so his body can heal.
- Kidneys – dialysis is seeming to work. His creatinine is lowered. His is still a little too acidic, but that is also moving in the right direction. They are also removing all of the fluid they are putting in which is good news. I promised him no pictures so I will not post any. Just know that this is a great thing.
- Lungs – he is back down to 65% oxygen. His blood oxygen level was back up to 99%. They will try to get him down to 50% before lowering the PEEP (the pressure to fill his lungs)
- Cultures – blood cultures haven’t shown anything. Infectious disease doctor says it’s because the toxins made by the bacteria were the cause of this – not the bacteria itself. He is going to do another type of test to see if they can find more out.
- Liver – still no good news there. But, it doesn’t seem to have gotten worse.
- Skin – his skin is our next challenge. It is starting to slough off where the rashes were. That causes two potential problems – infection and due to the fluid loss, blood pressure challenges.
- Which brings me to the better news for the day. He was on four pressers to keep his BP up. He is completely off of one and down to about half of another. That is good news both for his heart and so that if he needs help, we have room to add if needed.
- I’m holding his hand and telling him all about your love prayers & support. Please keep it up! We still need them.
5:39pm Jennifer Muszik UPDATE: Paul is still resting comfortably.
- BP: His BP is holding strong and is now only on 2 BP meds. They will start to lower another one slowly to see what he can handle. They are going slow which is good for me.
- Lungs: he is down to needing only 60% oxygen with his oxygen level staying around 97. Talked with pulmonology resident and learned a lot about the numbers on the screen. So far, those look good. Goal is to get to 50 to start dropping the PEEP (pressure). It’s at 14. They don’t like to go above 18, so it’s pretty high. Goal there would be down to 5.
- Temp: holding at 99.7 without any meds. That is good because they really don’t want to add anymore to the liver.
- Next Update – they are currently doing an ultrasound of all of his organs. That information will be sent to a radiologist to read and send a report. Will be a while for that to come.
- Overall, we have seen some positive steps today. This will be a many week / several month process, but our focus is on getting him better and bringing him home.
5:46pm Jennifer Muszik
KIDS: I also had the opportunity to go home & see the kids today. LoraLee – thank you for your guidance & support with this. Noah & Sarah know that daddy is still sick, but he is at the place where people go to try to get better. That the doctors are doing their best and daddy can use their prayers. Noah did ask how long until daddy can come home and I told him I’m not sure. I don’t want to promise something I can’t guarantee. And, while I 1 Million% believe Paul is coming home with me, I want to be very cautious about making a promise to the kids.
Paulie was a little different story. I talked with him one-on-one to let him know that daddy was really sick and needed lots of prayers. He knows that it will be quite some time before daddy could get better. He also knows that some kids at school might ask him – and just to remember that means their family is praying for daddy.
We will need to work on what our new normal will be for them. And, thank you all for your offer to help / support. I’m not sure what that looks like today, but I know we are going to need it
10:54pm Jennifer Muszik UPDATE: Paul has had a good day today. The goal today was to stay stable. He did better than that.
- BP – down to 2 pressers from 4 with a stable BP. They will slowly titrate another one down and help Paul do the work.
- Oxygen – vent is down to 55%. PEEP still at 14.
- They are moving him to an “air bed” to help give more air to the wound. They will lift his sheet up, pull one bed out & push the new one in place and then lower him down. Because of that, they didn’t want to move anything until he is resettles in his new bed.
- They will pull more labs soon. Those results and ultrasound results should be here in the morning.
- Goal is to get him settled & keep stable (well, critical but stable) through the night. Praying for that.
- Thank you all for your prayers! While we are not out of the woods, each day gets us closer to it.
