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Moe’s Story
Site created on November 17, 2021
If you have been to Tobin's Pizza, then you are probably blessed enough to have crossed paths with Moe Davis. He is the kind hearted and character filled face of Tobin's Pizza. Others may know him as the farmer from rural Danvers. Needless to say Moe holds a special place in so many hearts. Here is Moe's journey and updates will be posted as we find out more.
From Moe's son Brandon:In the beginning of November, my father Moe Davis became ill. First was a prompt care visit where he was checked for COVID, and at the time was negative. We were told he had a sinus infection and to take the antibiotics like Z-pack and steroids and to get some rest. Moe was feeling great, then slowly turned and it went down into his chest. He drove over to the Carle hospital in Normal to get checked out. They ran some tests like blood work and most came out normal as we would expect. Oxygen was a little low and they told him he had viral pneumonia. At this point no antibiotics would be helpful. They said they saw something in your chest, so we would like to do an MRI. The MRI was done and he was given discharge papers with the instruction to go home and rest. He did. At home his breathing took a turn for the worse. My wonderful fiancé once shared with me an old trick of eucalyptus mint oil and peppermint oil mixed in a coffee mug of hot water to help open air ways. So I did that for him, and had him slowly inhale. In the short term that helped and he slept that night. The next day Moe got progressively worse. That evening I stopped by to check his oxygen and it was at 88%. I said "come on let’s get some sweat pants, I’m taking you to OSF in Bloomington." We arrived at OSF where they admitted him immediately. Of course he had low oxygen. They started oxygen and two IV’s (one for fluids, one for possible antivirals) and kept him overnight. The next morning his oxygen was back to 97% and he was feeling good enough to eat breakfast. They sent him home to rest. So he did. 3 days later things aggressively got worse to the point where he was hardly able to walk or talk with out trying to catch his breath.
Monday morning (Nov 15th) I was on the outskirts of town and we received a call from Carle hospital asking if it was ok to treat Maurice Davis. I said "Well that’d be hard to do since you discharged him 5-6 days ago." Come to find out instead of calling an ambulance, my father had hopped in his truck and drove himself into the hospital. I assume he was having trouble speaking because of shortness of breath and my father has never been a text person. Later I asked him why he drove like that and didn’t reach out to us for help. He said “I was afraid I didn’t have time.” So they admitted him right away, did more testing as well as ran another MRI on his lungs. They told us that he has bilateral pulmonary embolisms. Which is blood clot filled lungs with puss and mucus top to bottom and his airway was closing. At this point they determined that he has delta variant COVID with pneumonia. Some call it COVID lung for short. At this point we were not allowed to be with Dad.
On Tuesday morning at approximately 10:30 AM we received a FaceTime call from my father (as they wouldn’t let any of us see him). We talked a bit although he could not respond much, but very much knew what we were saying. We all, as a family, said we love you and we will get through this. He did ask to see his little pup, Ellie Mae. For those of you who know my father, you know how much he loves his Ellie Mae. I wish badly I could've at least brought him his pup just so he had a little bit of home with him. At approximately 11 am on Tuesday (nov 16th) they started to sedate him for a vent so they could run a tube to his lungs to try and remove puss and blood clots.
So far they have started to successfully remove some and get him down to using 57% oxygen (meaning he is requiring less from the machine and doing more on his own). Prior to doing the tube, Dad was needing 80% oxygen to breathe so that is an improvement. I am writing all this today, Wednesday November 17th. Prayers are much needed in this time to hopefully keep going in the recovery direction. Thank you everyone for the support we will try to give updates whenever we receive them.
Just talked to Moe on the phone this evening. It was wonderful to hear his voice again. In his own words, his strength is about 30 percent and it is going to take him several weeks to get back to normal he feels. He plans to use the treadmill and other things to start slowly building himself back up. It put a smile on my face to hear him say "I'll be back in the restaurant in a few weeks." If I know Moe, it is going to be easier said than done to keep him at home doing nothing. He was in good spirits. I could hear the gratefulness in his voice for all of you. He said to tell everyone thank you so much and the appreciate the continued support. He asked me to post on here in case he isn't able to respond to all the calls and texts. At the end of the conversation, he stated how important it is in life to surround yourself with good people, and how that is what carried them through this. I want to thank you all from the bottom of my heart for caring for this family. For praying. and for using this to lift up our Saviors name and not ours. At this point it may be days before I post again as long as he continues to progress well. I will try to drop a note if something changes. Thank you all so much. What an honor it has been to watch God work and to witness this community rally. God bless. Alan Zimmerman
