A Dash of Stubbornness; January 14, 2014

If you've ever met a Walk, you know that there's a tendency of stubbornness that exists in each and every one of us.

Some of us more than others and at times, it comes on as strong as can be!

My sister, right now, continues to display hers and -- we all need her to stop!  :-)

As I referenced last evening, she's been trying to outwork the ventilator.

Her doctor wants her to get down to 18 breaths per minute; however, she, at times, has been as high as 28 bpm.

(When I left this evening, she was down to 21, which is as low as I've seen it since she's been in MICU.)

In an attempt to get her body to relax, the doctors have given her a paralytic.

As with many drugs (and I'm not a clinician although I work in the health care setting), there's a certain dosage or strength.

When I hadn't heard anything from my Dad today, I was slightly concerned so I was prepared for the full range of scenarios when I made it to the hospital through the middle of the evening (and after the MICU was opened back up to visitors).

What I learned was too complex to put into a text message.

When the doctor visited this morning, it was determined that the paralytic that was being used wasn't strong enough to paralyze her enough to get her breaths per minute down.  (My physician friends will correct me - please - if I don't get this explained exactly correct.)

The way my Dad explained it:  the clinicians were stumped.

He indicated that they had a conference with the critical care pharmacist and they literally came up with a concoction of two drugs that weren't in the hospital's formulary and were doing manual calculations to determine how much they would be able to give her.

I may offend here, but it is not my intention to.  If I do, I sincerely apologize.

If you're a believer in and a follower of Christ, this - to me - is evidence that God is in control of the situation - and He wants us to all completely put our trust in Him.

The nurses that I have encountered at the facility that my sister is in do a very good job in communicating what they're doing.

I told the nurse that was in her room caring for her before I left that I was trusting her 100%.

The way I see it:  I have to (unless something, of course, is so blatantly obvious that doesn't make sense) as I don't have their chosen field of training, experience and passion to care for others.

We were told early on that this was going to be a long process.

We would ask that you pray - in addition for the doctors and nurses to be able to perform their duties according to their training and expertise -- specifically for my sister's body to rest to allow her breaths per minute to get to a point and remain stable so the options to help get her well have less potential risk.

I don't remember the specific need for a CT scan, but there's a hesitancy to even transfer her one floor lower because her body needs to be more at rest.

A process known as ECMO - which I know recently was instrumental in saving the life of a young girl in our area who contracted the pneumonia as a result of H1N1 - has been put on the table as a potential option.

However, since the facility doesn't have the machine needed for this procedure (although it has certified clinicians in the process), a transfer downtown would be necessary -- and there's already a waiting list to get that care with the use of the device.

Plus a transfer to another facility is a great challenge if there's concern of going one floor down in the same building.

My father did learn through an administrative friend of ours that there's another facility in town that have these devices, but they aren't keen on renting them and would desire the patient (and the revenue associated with them).

I share this to guide your prayers, not to flame that facility in comments, etc.

I would ask that you respect my reason for sharing this with you - and refrain from any public rebuke in social media.  (Thank you.)

A friend of my sister and brother-in-law was spending the night tonight in my sister's room to give my parents and brother-in-law a chance to rest - even though my brother-in-law has had to return to work (but at least he's been able to arrange to be local as opposed to being on the road.)

We appreciate her willingness to do so and there are other offers to do the same.  And we thank you for that.

Thank you again for all of your prayers and those of you who have reached out and made yourself available to our families.

We greatly appreciate your generosity, kindness, love, concern and care for my sister, brother-in-law, their two daughters (my two nieces) and my parents.

Jon