Hi prayer warriors, sorry for the long wait between updates. These last two weeks have been very busy and we have a long update on Mom with a big prayer request.

I last updated on Facebook that Mom was struggling with severe dehydration, weakness and low blood pressure which led to needing to go to the Emergency Room early last week, and being admitted to McCook Community Hospital. They found some bleeding from Mom’s colon along with in her stomach drain. Because of the internal bleeding and that requiring the oncology surgical team, they transferred Mom via ambulance back to UNMC in Omaha last Wednesday. Maddie and I were able to go down and spend the week there. Mom received a blood transfusion before leaving McCook Community Hospital and during her transport via ambulance, and that helped her feel much better and get her energy and strength up a little bit. After her surgical oncology team at UNMC performed a stomach scope and colonoscopy on Friday, it was determined that there was minimal internal bleeding with not much concern. There weren’t any complications during the procedure but unfortunately, her colon was too swollen to be able to pass through completely with her GI tumor still restricting her gastric organs. The other concern was keeping mom’s hydration and strength up, so the team put together a new plan to keep her hydrated and additional physical therapy during her visits in Kearney every week. She was previously getting IV fluids 3 days a week (MWF) in McCook and now she will be getting IV infusions every day with double fluids on Friday so she hopefully won’t have to go to the ER over the weekend if she’s severely dehydrated again. They discharged Mom on Saturday 5/18.

Since then, Mom has been dealing with a cough and shortness of breath. We were keeping an eye on it and last night she started developing a low fever. After talking to a family member in the medical field, they decided to go to the ER last night. Mom tested positive for COVID and also has some fluid surrounding her lungs from the cancer (pleural effusion). She is currently admitted back into McCook Community Hospital and doing 3 rounds of Paxlovid to try to help her immune system kick the virus. I don’t believe they have a plan yet for the fluid surrounding her lungs. Her hemoglobin is also dropping again so they are planning on doing another blood transfusion. Because of this, she was unable to go to Kearney today to complete her weekly round of chemo. 

Please pray that Mom is able to kick the COVID virus so she can go back to fighting the other demon attacking her body.