Friday May 11 - Ray still in ICU/Critical but Improving

Family and Friends,
What a week!  I can't believe Ray's transplant was one week ago today!  This is considered Day 7, with transplant day counting as Day 0.  There wasn't much change yesterday from my last post early Wed am. 

In summary, Ray is improving, but he's still considered in critical condition.  The main concern is that he seems to have plateaued vs continuing to improve daily and specifically, his breathing took a setback.  The lung doctor told me this am that he may have to go on a ventillator later today if his breathing doesn't show signs of improvement.  They would ventillate him later today for 3-5 days.  I'm trying not to panic about that as they've assured me it will only help him recover faster and his body won't have to struggle so hard to breathe.  I admit I'm very scared at the thought of this but I'm asking God to give me peace about it if this becomes necessary.  Today will be a key day in several areas, so I will post an update either late tonight or early tomorrow.Here's an overall update on his key areas:

1. Kidneys - continue to do well.  Just a concern that he has too much sodium in his body and they have to balance that.  Giving meds and diuretics and water to combat.  One of the fungal antibiotics can cause long term kidney disease or failure but he has no choice; he has to remain on it since they still have no clue what kind of infection he has/had. They continue to watch this; so far no evidence of this.
2.  Breathing - setback on Wed night.  Had to put him back on the breathing machine and just switched off of it this am to a smaller breathing mask with 50% oxygen.  Weaning him off.  If he doesn't do well, he will be ventillated today.  Please pray his lungs work well in this weaning process and he can avoid ventillation!
3.  Heart - GREAT news on this front.  Working great.  Cardiologist said his heart improvement is nothing short of a miracle.  "remarkable'.  The leaky valves he had on Sat have almost gone away completely.  One is totally recovered and the other is a very small leak and will resolve on own.  Beating strong.  He had some irregular heartbeats Wed and Thurs and also a few huge spikes in his heart rate Wed, but they've controlled that via meds and he's doing well now.
4.  CT Scans/Bleeding - he does have bleeds in the brain, as I mentioned on my last post.  They don't know if they are from low platelets or if they may actually be the infection that spread to his brain.  This would support a fungal infection.  They are treating for both just in case.  He is/was also bleeding in his stomach area.  They put a feeding tube in him Wed afternoon, but they ended up spending all day Wed and Thurs am pumping blood out of his stomach.  Then it stopped suddenly and they have been able to feed him nutrition starting yesterday afternoon.  He is tolerating this well.  The Dr said the stomach bleeding didn't show up on the CT scan Tues so they feel it is very small bleeds due to low platelets.  It seems to have resolved.
5.  Alertness - Ray spent most of Wed and Thurs totally 'out of it' - just sleeping basically.  Today, however, he opened his eyes and could tell the Drs his name, wiggle his fingers and toes, etc.  He told us he hurt 'everywhere' when we asked him where his pain was.  At least he can communicate!!  That was a bit of a concern when he wasn't responsive for the last 2 days, especially with bleeding in his brain.

That's about it for now.  The main prayer request right now is for his breathing to improve,.  He has fluid all around his lungs and some internally in his lungs.  He is not improving in this key area.  I would rather he improve today so he can avoid the ventillator, but if it needs to be done so he can improve, then that is what we will do.  Please pray for this specific need!

Thank you all again for your support and love and prayers.  Ray is a fighter, as we all know,.  He will pull through this, I believe.  He is through the worst of it I think and many would not have survived the weekend's sepsis and multi system organ failure.  His kidneys got better in 2 days and his heart had a 'miraculous' recovery!  These are two huge blessings and we know without a doubt that your prayers made the difference!  We have peace knowing Ray is in God's loving hands and He can perform miracles!

Ray should be getting his new white blood cells/immune system in the next few days.  This week would have been his worst week even under 'normal' transplant conditions.  The Drs are giving him daily shots to boost the production of his new white blood cells to help him fight this infection and recover....so pray they work.  They sometimes do not.  Once he gets his new immune system working again, he will recover much faster!

Thanks for everything!  Keep praying...he's not out of the woods yet by any means.  But he is definitely much better than last weekend! 

"GOD IS BIG ENOUGH" - We still wear our bracelets...little did we realize how much God would prove this to be true with Ray's transplant journey!

Love to all,
Teri