On Wednesday, February 24th, Dana was taken by ambulance to St. Mary's in Rochester with COVID-19 and low oxygen levels. He was moved to the ICU covid floor where it is a restricted area so unfortunately no visitation is allowed. Due to his oxygen levels being at a 60% , where they need to be at a 90 or above, he was placed on a Bipap machine (basically a CPAP machine on steroids) to give him max oxygen, as well as max pressure.
On Thursday, February 25th, they tried to see how well he would do on the high flow machine, but his oxygen levels would drop tremendously. Therefore needing to keep him on his cpap machine with high oxygen levels. We also found out from talking to the nurse, that Dana had a blood clot on his leg, and he could potentially have more, such as one in his lungs, however they couldn't do a CT scan due to receiving such high oxygen. We were able to video chat with him on Thursday night, although it was hard to understand him with his cpap mask, which we believe helped build his spirits up quite a bit. He had told us that he was unsure what the time was, as well as being bored laying in the hospital bed all day. However, we as a family also enjoyed getting to hear his voice and speaking to him.
On the morning of Friday, February 26th, we really thought he was doing super well. He finally got to eat some food, which included some salmon, rice, a muffin, and some green beans. He was also more awake and texting his family more often. We as a family, were super excited to see his progress, because while he was eating, he got to use the high flow machine, which was a step in the right direction. However, around 4 PM, we received a call from Dana, with some unfortunate news. He called us letting us know that the doctors wanted to put him on the ventilator, therefore giving his lungs a break and hopefully some time to heal. Andrew got to speak with the doctors, and understand their plan of action that they had for Dana. Andrew also was speaking with Dana, just making sure he fully understood what the doctors' plans were, and how much we all loved him. At around 5 PM, we received a phone call letting us all know that Dana's procedure to put him on the ventilator went well and according to plan.
Today is Saturday, February 27th, and we are frustrated. Due to Dana being put on the ventilator, we are no longer able to communicate with him, as he is heavily sedated, therefore all our updates on knowing how he is doing is strictly coming from when we get to contact them. We spoke with Dana's nurse at around 11 this morning, and she informed us that he was doing well this morning, and the proning (rolling him to his stomach) went well last night. He was receiving 100% oxygen from the ventilator when the procedure began, but overnight, he was only receiving 45% oxygen (which is a really good improvement). The nurse told us that they were going to flip him back onto his back at around 1 pm. We spoke to the nurse around 3:30, in which she told us he had gone back up to using 60% oxygen, as well as the fact that his blood pressure had dropped. Andrew said this can be very normal, due to the sedative, as well as his blood clot(s) potentially causing the blood pressure to lower as well. They will update us at around 8 PM tonight to let us know any further updates on how he is doing. Please continue to pray for Dana and our family.
We truly appreciate all the love, prayers, and support that we have received!
