(TWT)First Blog

I started a blog when my wife became ill. I thought it was a way to keep everyone informed. But the computer at the hospital was crap and my sister in-law could not grasp the blog thing at the time.
I just took her letters and posted them. Here is the first one:


Dear family and friends,

Most of you have already been made well aware of our situation, but for those who have not, Ill start from the beginning. my wife became suddenly and very seriously ill last Sunday. She was admitted into the Regional Hospital on Monday with a diagnosis of atypical pneumonia. On Wednesday morning, after not responding to any of the therapies, she was heavily sedated and put on life support. That afternoon we were given the diagnosis of ARDS (Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome). I can't tell you why or how this developed because her doctors are still in the dark themselves, in fact they say we may never really know. I guess that’s neither here nor there, however, as it doesn’t change the diagnosis. ARDS is very serious and she is in critical condition. I don’t fully understand ARDS, and I hope this is correct, but from what I have learned over the past few days, ARDS is severe damage to the lungs that affects the lungs ability to oxygenate the blood. There is no magic pill that will instantly cure her. The doctors goals at this time are to keep her stable and to keep everything working long enough for her lungs to heal. A few things that you should know with ARDS...first that recovery is like a roller coaster. There are MANY ups and downs. Secondly, progress is made in tiny baby steps. We have had some steps forward and some steps back, but all in all I think we are a little bit ahead.
For the past 3 days we have been experiencing that roller coaster. She is still sedated and she hasn’t woken up since Wednesday morning. We asked for a second opinion yesterday morning, not because we thought the diagnosis would change, but because we wanted to explore treatment options that her doctor wasn’t willing to try. We got our second opinion Friday night and the new doctor made a few changes. He switched her from volume controlled ventilation to pressure controlled ventilation, and he turned her onto her stomach for 12 hours. This morning (Saturday) her numbers were looking a little better. Today her blood work has come back improved, and the pneumonia is gone. Her ventilator was down to 60% (from 100%) and she was holding steady. By the way, our ventilator goal is 21%, and you will be seeing these numbers a lot as I update you all. Halfway through the day we were given the option of having my wife transported to another hospital, one with more treatment options. She was stable enough today to make the trip. The Regional is a good hospital but we were at the limit as to what they could offer her. We made the decision to have her transferred by helicopter to Methodist Hospital in the Medical Center. Since her arrival this afternoon at Methodist she has undergone more tests and procedures, she hates being "mucked" with, and all the activity has set her back a bit, however she was looking pretty stable when I left the hospital at 10 pm. The ventilator was pushed back up to 100%, but she is back down to 70% now and her vital signs are improving. They have brought in a special bed that seems to have good results with ARDS patients. She is being tilted to a 90 degree angle, back and forth, all the time. She was put on Nitric Oxide (sp?) tonight also, another treatment that they have found helpful in some ARDS patients, however they just called me and said that the nighttime doctor just came in and took her off saying that she doesn’t fit the criteria. We will have to wait until tomorrow morning to talk to her doctor about this. We were really feeling good about Nitric Oxide, as the ARDS research we have done shows this to be one of the better treatments available. The availability of it was also one of the reasons we had her transferred.
Her doctor at Methodist told me tonight that the best thing we could all do at this time is to have faith, be optimistic and pray. So I am asking you all for your prayers for my wife.
I will update everyone as often as I can. You are all still welcome to call also. We have to turn our cell phones off in the ICU and I apologize that I have missed so many calls.
Thank you for the prayers and the support! I know that when my wife pulls out of this she will be grateful for it all! If I have left anyone out, or you have questions please feel free to email me back. I tried to think of everyone, but my brain isn’t functioning perfectly right now. You can also forward this email to anyone I missed. I figure the more people praying the louder we will be and God will hear us!


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Out of respect for my wife I will tell you that she is better and I took her name out.
Now the second opinion was because my brother in law was being a shit head and talking disrespectful about the hospital and staff. he said he would not bring his dog to this hospital and here I had my wife.
I was under the impression that at some time I may have a fight with my wife's family about my care of my wife so I asked for a second opinion.
After the doctor flipped her and she got a little better a "bird" came into the room and said that i should maybe consider moving her to another hospital.
She was under for two weeks and if you do nay research on ARDS you will find it both scary because it seems everybody dies or everybody is disabled and then
you will find it amazing that she got better and is not in need of an O2 tank (my sister in law was planning the funeral before she was dead).

I read this post and the others I cry. Hell i cry every time we have a fight and i think about the time almost lost her. She does not see me cry but I do. This had to have been the scariest time of my life.

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I have taken that blog down because I wanted to keep it up but the sadness kills me. and the thought of losing her weakens me so I try not to touch those feelings too often.
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This blog is a part of Typing With Tina. If you would like to play.
Here are the details - cut and paste.

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=45911685&blogID=341615342