May 6 Update - RAY IN ICU and CRITICAL

Family and Friends,
Apologies I haven't had a second to update this since Friday's blog when Ray was admitted to ICU with pneumonia.  I have been by Ray's side and just wasn't able to leave long enough to update.

Cuurrent Status:  Ray is in ICU and in critical condition still.  PLEASE CONTINUE TO PRAY FOR HIM!!  He does NOT have pneumonia any longer (or maybe never did?) but he does have a serious blood infection the Drs believe is now septic or sepsis.  This is life threatening.  This means he has a severe infection in his blood.  Yesterday, Sat, was a horrible day for Ray and our family.  The drs informed us that Ray's kidneys had failed, his liver was failing, his heart was only pumping 35% and now shows evidence of a 'leaky valve' in which one third of his blood is flowing back the wrong direction in his heart, and his lungs were compromised.  His heart rate was 114 with fast, shallow breaths that result in his not getting rid of his carbon dioxide when exhaling, so it builds up in his lungs.  In addition, Friday night Ray's blood pressure had dropped to 40/14 for much of the night. Saturday they were able to get his pressure back to 60/40 with 3 types of blood pressure medications.  Saturday night they started Ray on dialysis for his kidney failure and that seems to be helping rid his system of all the fluids and toxins in his system.  At one point Saturday afternoon, they were minutes away from ventillating Ray and completely putting him unconscious for the next 3-4 days.  When I got the courage up to ask the question, the Drs told me that Ray could "go either way" and basically had a 50% chance of surviving.  The problem remains that the drs still cannot identify the cause/source of his infection, so they are giving him every antibiotic known to man to fight it.  However, they need to identify the exact bacteria/germ so they can fight it wth the best antibiotic specific to that bacteria.  They are culturing his blood for bacteria, viral, and fungal infections.  So far nothing has come back positive.  He has about 12 'lesions' on his legs, one on his arm, and one on his face.  These lesions were initially thought to be blood clots as they presented very similar to the blood clots and cellulitis he had in Sept.  However, now they think they are just part of the overall systemic infection coursing through his entire body and infecting multiple organs.  The one on his face is in the same spot Ray thought he got bit by a mosquito or bug Tues night when sitting outside in the prayer garden.  Who knows?  The doctor from the infection diseases is also consulting and has seen Ray twice and trying to find out what these are and how to best treat.  Ray had a 103+ fever Wed afternoon through Sat morning.  Again, no known cause.  He was struggling with every breath. 

The good news is that the Drs now think Ray may be responding to one one or more of the many antibiotics he is receiving, because his fever is gone and his blood pressure is now stable without medication (as of 4pm today!) PTL!!   His temp is actually on the low side now (was 93 last night!) and is 96 tonight.  The is due to the infection and the dialysis apparently.  The Drs have said we may never know what caused this infection but the important thing is to treat it and get rid of it completely.  Of course, all this would be very serious for a person with a normal immune system, but with Ray's diminished immune system and very low white blood count (600 today), it puts him at even more risk.  In reality, Ray wasn't even supposed to start feeling sick at all from this whoe transplant process until tonight or as late as Tues, when his blood counts would go to 0 from the chemo.  So, this infection came as a huge surprise and we need to get it resolved quickly before he has 0 white blood cells...which will likely be tomorrow or Tues at latest.

I must share with you our experience on Sat when the drs made the decision to put Ray on a ventillator.  I asked the Drs and nurses to all leave the room so our family could have some private time with Ray before the procedure was done, after which Ray wouldn't be able to talk anymore obviously, or hear us talk to him, as he would be unconscious the entire time.  We spent about 30 min telling him how much we loved him, talking about how much we all needed him, talking about what we still wanted to share with him in this life, and praying and asking God to heal him.  Then I called Jordan and Savana, who were on their way to the hospital, brother Billy and Doug Swanson who had just left to return to Rockford, IL, and our sister in law, Betty Boehm, who was originally on her way to Colorado and had decided a few hours earlier to return to the hospital for Ray...so that they all could talk with Ray before the ventillator.  During this time, they were waiting outside the room for us to finish so they could do the procedure.  I asked my family to then give me a few minutes alone with Ray. Through all this, Ray was awake and coherent and talking and totally aware of what was going on and what was about to happen.  He had an amazing and unexpected peace and calmness about him throughout it all.  He told us all that "if I don't make it, don't think its because Ididn't try and fight as hard as I can to come back to you."  Then I opened the door to ask the Dr if they could wait 10 more minutes to give Jordan and Savana time to see Ray, and they told me that they had just received some last minute test results and they changed their mind and weren't going to put him on the ventillator after all at this time.  They did explain that they still may have to do this later, but were going to wait for now.  They said they were quite surprised to see some of the improvement in his results.  Of course, we all know it was the Lord's hand on Ray and we give him all the praise!!  It truly is a miracle!  If we hadn't taken the time to talk with Ray alone, the ventillator would have already been put in before they got the updated test results!

Ray is not out of the woods yet, so please continue to PRAY, PRAY, PRAY!!  He still has all the 'standard' risks associated with the bone marrow transplant to deal with these next 2 weeks while his counts are so low/non existant.  Now he has to go through that while he's in a very weakened state with this infection and sepsis.  AND he still has to completely heal from the infection and pray that his kidneys, liver, heart and lungs all return to their former full functionality.  He will likely remain in ICU the rest of his stay now, but he's receiving excellent care here so that's ok.

I'll try to give a briefer update every day we're here....unless there's a crisis like this weekend where I simply cannot get time away from Ray to do so.

I feel hopeful that Ray will survive this infection now, but again, he is still in critical condition going into the highest risk time of the transplant with no white blood cells to help fight infection, so he needs everyone's prayers!  Ray is still so young and has so much life left to live.  Please help with your prayers!!

Thanks to all who have come to visit Ray this weekend and to everyone that has helped with our other kids by providing meals, etc.  Thanks for your love and support and most of all, thank you all for your prayers!  we know it made the difference!!

Love, Teri