Friday, June 26th

Mom talked to Dr. Klesney-Tait today (Dad's head doctor). She said that they're going to try to put a scope in to see where the blood clots are all at. Dad's blood pressure was doing good earlier today, but has since lowered some. Dr. Tait said that if Dad's heart were to go out on him, she didn't recommend resuscitation because the chest compressions would be too hard on his bones. At this time though, his heart looks okay, but you never know. He's currently at 100% ventilator support and his O2 saturations are in the low 90's. As Mom described to me, "He's the sickest I think he's ever been." Dr. Tait said she's still holding hope for him and that she's seen patients come out of this, but he is extremely sick right now. They haven't found any infection and he only had a little bit of a temperature today. Again, they're going to try to lay him on his stomach in order to clear up some of the "junk" in his lungs. As much as I hate to use the word "grim" I think it's appropriate for his condition right now. Please, we can use all of your prayers at this time...that's all we can do is hope and pray.

Tuesday, June 23rd - Thursday, June 26th

It's really late, and I work in the morning, but I feel like I need to update you all because I don't want to give false hope with the last post...as bad as that sounds. Just two days removed from the whole 65% ventilator dependency, Dad was back on 95% today (Thursday). His kidneys seem to be pretty much tanking (creatnine levels in the 3's) again. This was really tough on all of us today...Mom left work and headed back to Iowa City this afternoon. There's also blood in his urine, which might be caused by a blood clot in his bladder. That might be part of the reason for his rise in ventilator support as well...still no fever's as far as I know. Dad's head doctor still isn't giving up hope on him, but she's starting to get worried about the lungs and whether they've been permenantly damaged. For the first time since they said he wasn't going to make it, I can honestly say I'm scared. Not worried. Scared. I'm really starting to wonder if he's going to make it out of this. We need some progress. Soon. I'll probably be joining Mom in Iowa City soon if things stay the way they are. I'll keep you posted.