Bryan’s Story

Site created on November 17, 2020

Welcome to our CaringBridge website. We are using it to keep family and friends updated in one place. We appreciate your support and words of hope!

On Thursday, October 29 Nielsen started feeling symptoms of a sore throat and he just wasn’t feeling 100%. We took him to get a Covid test and put him in isolation. We sent the kids to separate houses to try to mitigate the spread and unfortunately the Littles got sick. Fortunately, they had very minor symptoms.

He tested positive for COVID-19 on the Tuesday following Halloween. His breathing was strained and he was very very lethargic. By Thursday of that week I had to take him to a respiratory clinic and they sent him home. The next day he took a turn for the worse and I had to drop him off at Methodist emergency room. They were so busy that he had to sit in a room for an hour and a half in a wheelchair to wait to be seen. They did an x-ray and found that he had COVID-19 pneumonia, but his oxygen levels were above 90 and so they sent him home again. I watched his oxygen levels dropped over the next 24 hours and ended up taking him to the Women’s hospital emergency room where they decided to admit him and took him in an ambulance to Methodist hospital where he was admitted to the ICU. He has been in the ICU at Methodist since Friday, November 6th.

Bryan has had a very tough week of managing his breathing and anxiety. Being alone, having nurses in full PPE, and only being able to see your family on the phone was very frightening. We all wish that we could be there to hold his hand and tell him that everything would be better.

With his severe asthma, COVID-19 really kicked him down. Every day he is fighting to get home.

Newest Update

December 14, 2020

Journal entry by Holly Nielsen —

Bryan started out patient therapy at Madonna today! He will be going to PT, OT, and speech therapy 3 days a week for the next 8 weeks minimum. His spirits are high and he is looking forward to reading “The Night Before Christmas” to the kids on Christmas Eve. 

As always, we appreciate all the kind thoughts and prayers during his recovery. 2021 will bring 100% full recovery and a new lease on life. He is feeling blessed!

Happy Holidays!
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