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 and encouragement.
Mark, myself, and our 2 boys tested positive for Covid on December 20, 2021. While our 2 boys and I had some symptoms and were tired, we weren’t majorly affected. Mark started out with the typical symptoms of a cough and fever. He was extremely exhausted and was sleeping a lot. Unfortunately this virus progressed rapidly and caused him to feel out of breath frequently. I also started to notice that when he was sleeping, he was breathing really fast. On Christmas morning our 2 excited boys woke us up ready to go downstairs to see what Santa had brought for them. It took Mark quite a while to get out of bed but he managed to come down and lay on the couch while the boys opened their presents. He looked awful. I could tell he was trying his hardest to look excited for them. Once they were finished, we started discussing the possibility of bringing him to the hospital as he wasn’t improving and was having a really hard time even getting up. I dropped him off at Lowell General a little before noon thinking he just needed some medication and maybe a little oxygen to get him over this hump. Unfortunately we had no idea the nightmare we were just about to experience. 2 days later his team at Lowell General made the decision that he needed to be intubated and placed on a ventilator for his safety. He was on that ventilator for 3 days. They felt as though he was tolerating coming down on the amount of oxygen he was needing and started to wean him off of the sedation meds to try and start waking him up. Unfortunately as Mark started waking up, he ripped the tube out of his throat. We were told many patients do this because, wouldn’t you? They felt as though Mark was actually doing ok without it and put him on a high flow nasal cannula just to give him some oxygen. We were all so happy he was heading back in the right direction. He was off the ventilator for about 8 hours when he started getting very anxious. All those meds he was on, plus the fact that he needed oxygen can cause a person to become delirious, anxious, and agitated. No one could calm him down and they felt for his safety they needed to sedate him and put him back on the ventilator. This is when I decided to put in a formal request to transfer him to Boston with the help of some amazing people who I will never forget. He truly is the most amazing father, husband, son and brother. Please keep praying for him to make it through this. We cannot imagine life without him.
Today is day 52 that Mark has been in the hospital. He was ready for rehab last week, but our insurance company denied acute level rehab. The doctors felt strongly that this is what he needed and appealed the insurance company’s decision. Unfortunately, our insurance company still refused to cover it. They only want to cover a skilled nursing home where Mark would only receive 1/3 of the services. After conversations with 3 physical therapists here at the hospital, we came to the conclusion that in home therapy would be best at this time. He won’t be receiving it every day, but as he gets stronger we can switch to outpatient rehab and get him back to where he was. We are just so happy that he will be home in the coming days!
Patients and caregivers love hearing from you; add a comment to show your support.
Help Mark Stay Connected to Family and Friends
A $25 donation to CaringBridge powers a site like Mark's for two weeks. Will you make a gift to help ensure that this site stays online for them and for you?
