First of all thank you all for your prayers and kind words. I have created this sight as a way to let the people who care about Randy know what is going on with him while maintaining my sanity. I will start by telling you how we got to today. Randy had been coughing for a couple weeks,( to the point that I was bitching at him about taking something for it). We both would have coldish symptoms, maybe not feel good for a day, but then be ok. On Sunday March 21st Randy came home from work about half an hour early, saying he felt like crap. I was working in the garage at the time. I came in the house about an hour later and he was sleeping already. Monday and Tuesday he rested and took cold medicine. On Wednesday he wasn't feeling better so he called Dr Green's office which ended up being closed on Wednesday. I called back early Thursday morning, we were told that with his symptoms he could not be seen in her office and needed to be tested for Covid 19. We were directed to contact an urgent care facility in Brighton. The process for getting the test was a nightmare in itself..... call a special number , wait for a virtual visit, have the test ordered, then go to the mobile test sight. Then wait. He was called with the results around 4pm on Friday and was told since the result was negative he could now be seen in the urgent care facility. I drove him there around 10am on Saturday. As soon as he was taken in to the exam room and an oxygen monitor was put on his finger he was urgently given a nebulizer treatment with oxygen. His oxygen saturation would go up in to the 90% range during the treatment , but would drop back down to the 70s once treatment was done. The nebulizer treatment was repeated with the same results. The doctor then told us he should go to the emergency room. She strongly suggested he go by ambulance, but we declined. The Hospital was only about a mile away. Once in the emergency room he was immediately given oxygen another Covid 19 test and a CT scan was done on his chest. Based on the results of the CT scan (showing obvious visual signs of Covid 19 he was admitted to the hospital. I stayed with him until the took him to his room. He was at first put in a normal room and was able to eat normal food. On Tuesday, March 31st (our son Clay's birthday) I started to notice a change in Randy, up until then he would call me every couple hours. He was miserable, but his spirits remained high, as always. But he stopped calling me, he was just too tired. I was told he may need to be intubated, but he remained stable until around 10 pm on Wednesday when he was put on a ventilator. To be clear, this meant he was sedated and a tube was placed in his throat to help him breathe. I was really scared at first, I was feeling like it was an automatic death sentence if he was intubated, that I would never see him or talk to him again, but instead I was assured that he was resting comfortably which gave me unexpected peace of mind. He remained on the ventilator until Sunday April 5th around noon. I was able to talk to him briefly, but it was very difficult to understand him. After a ventilator tube is removed the throat is very sore. Over the next few days I could have short conversations with him, but still he was hard to hear or understand and I didn't want to stress him out by asking to repeat everything, so I would try not to ask him questions. I was getting phone calls a couple times a day with updates from a Doctor or Nurse, or the special liaison for Covid 19 patients and their families. I had been told that him going back on the ventilator was a possibility, but kept praying it wouldn't have to happen. He seemed to be making some progress in some areas, but his lungs were just having to work too hard. I Spoke to him around 3pm yesterday, our son Clay spoke to him too, our older son and daughter had also spoken to him in the last day or so. Seemed like he was headed albeit slowly in the right direction. I received a phone call at 7:08 pm last evening, he had been put back on the ventilator. His condition worsened around 4pm and he even told the doctor he needed the tube back in. My heart sank, not again..... This time he had to be very heavily sedated, his body was fighting breathing against the machine. They finally got him stable in the prone position.
Today he remains heavily sedated. They were able to get a deep lung culture and he is being tested for everything that can be treated. He is being moved to the unit with the other Covid patients. He was not originally placed there because of the negative test results. He has been tested 2 more times, both negative, but he has other markers that indicate the Covid 19 virus. These include inflammation, fever, and elevated white blood count as well as the results from the CT scan showing ground glass opacity.
I will try to post updates here a couple times a day, typing this out has felt good. Share it as you see fit. I will not spend time second guessing the care he is getting, I have had several people send me videos or articles or what not on the latest new thing that must be done..... I have asked his care providers about some of them and have always been more than satisfied with their answers. This is out of my hands, and my faith is strong that it will work out how it is supposed too. I thank you again for your support.
What a day this has been! Mom, Matt, Clay and I had decided earlier this week to connect the 4 of us. Mom wanted all of us to be on the same page in case we had to answer so difficult questions. None us could have imagined that today was going to be that day.
Dad’s instability grew overnight of Friday 4/10 and by our conversation at 8:00 AM on 4/11 his kidneys and heart began to fail. This is where times get fuzzy and there were so many calls back and forth but Mom talked to the Doctor and we realized how significantly Dad’s condition had changed. At 1:15 we were all on another conference call where hospital staff put the phone to Dad’s ear and we all said said goodbye. This is absolutely the most life altering phone call I never wanted to make but I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to say I love you one more time and for my kids and husband to also. At 2:13 pm Mom called me to say that the hospital had called her to let her know he had passed.
My phone battery doesn’t usually die. But this crazy, aweful, viscous disease kept us apart for these last 3 weeks. Dad, Mom and Clay were doing their part to flatten the curve and it still managed to find him. We were planning on going to see Gamy and Papa over spring break but Dad wasn’t feeling well so we started connecting on Google Hangouts and our phones became our lifeline.
Tomorrow is Easter and the last time I saw and hugged my dad was on Fat Tuesday. I am not sure these 40 days and 40 nights will ever be the same.
Dad I will miss you forever! There was no one else like you. Thank you for being the best dad and loving us so unconditionally. You showed me what to expect in a partner the way you loved mom everyday. You showed me how to be positive and push through rough situations. You showed us that 2+2 might equal 7 beers and that you can brighten the world around you with a song. Patsy Cline and Randy Travis have nothing on you. You and Mom did everything to give us kids the best life and I am forever great full to be the daughter of Randy and Lisa Semroska.
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