Monday, April 6

2.20pm report: Just heard from Dr. Joyce who is taking care of dad today. She says his breathing/COVID/pneumonia inflamation markers are on their way down which coorilates with improvement from COVID. He is receiving antibiotics for aspiration pneumonia and today his white blood cells show to be coming down and indicating that they are moving in the right direction to clear the bacterial virus. His kidneys remain stable - His troponin levels are trending down and that is positive. Today they are working on orienting him a bit more, swallowing and feeding. We are planning on another phone call with him today and seems like we are moving in the right direction.

3pm report: Got a phonecall from Dr. French - within the last 30 minutes since our last update, dads blood pressure did drop to concerning levels (70/80s). They are going to respond by pumping him with more fluids and hoping that it pushes the levels up. If that is not successful, they will move him back to ICU for Pressers, such as epinephrine. A pressor base is a substance (chemically classified as a base) capable of raising the blood pressure. There was talk about possibly having to re-intubate to help with heart stabilization, however that is not recommended - that decision does not have to be made as of yet. Dr French said she would get back to us with a report on how he is responding to the fluids with regard to his blood pressure….

4pm report: Heard again from Dr. French and she mentioned that his Blood Pressure was making its way back up (90s over 50s) with the fluids provided. They are waiting for labs to come back and from that they are looking for signs of a cardiac episode (would be managed medically), internal bleeding (need to find source and give him blood) or possibly sepsis (which seems unlikely since his white blood count is not elevated). We will wait to hear…

5pm report: Bloodwork came back and everything looks fairly normal except for his hemoglobin levels - they have dropped which indicates internal bleeding of some sort. He had 2 normal bowels today which indicates that the bleeding is not coming from his GI tract. They have suggested a blood transfusion and a CAT scan of his abdomen to locate the source. Felicia and I have approved both procedures. they hung up ready to move on with the plan for a blood transfusion and CAT scan.. we wait to hear…

9.45pm report: Dad is undergoing the blood transfusion now - he will get 2 units of blood and then they will go back and check his numbers around 2 or 3am. Not sure if the CAT scan was done on the abdomen - so we will wait to hear. At 8pm his blood pressure was reading at 112/52, yet before the transfusion began he was at 88/52. So we are moving in the right direction. She mentioned that for now his oxygen rate is beautiful on the nasal prongs at 96%, his respiratory rate is good too. His heat rate is a bit fast, however they feel with more volume (as a result of the transfusion) that will normalize. Nurse Emily is just in from the ICU at a Bridgeport hospital so it is her first time with dad. She mentioned she had some good eye contact with him today, however he was mumbling a bit and seemed to be pretty comfortable. She was great and i will check in with her before i go to bed…

: After dads solid report this morning, we found out that dad had a drop in blood pressure in the afternoon. After some blood work, they have determined that his hemoglobin levels have dropped which might indicate some internal bleeding. While working to identify the source of the bleeding, they have also decided it was best to undergo a blood transfusion. This will help to bring the pressure up to a better level. He is currently having that transfusion now and it seems to be helping. They will do additional tests at 2-3am with another possible infusion. His oxygen levels are great at 96% with minimal support of nasal prongs. Unfortunately as we keep hearing/reading the recovery can be just as challenging as fighting the virus itself - thanks for all the support and we will keep our fingers crossed and keep you posted.

Today on my walk i came across this heart in the pavement - always proved to be a good day!

And, i also began my photo collage of all the gloves found in nature.. here is one..