What a week!

Tuesday the respiratory therapist continued to lower Jon's oxygen. When the RT came on duty, Jon's oxygen was at 80% and he was doing well. She continued to lower it to 50% and his numbers began to go down. He struggled all day with his oxygen sats. They finally turned it up to 100%. On Tuesday, his x-ray looked a little better. His ABGs were good (I think)...his numbers were steady all night. The doctor all tried to begin moving the bed again. Jon did not tolerate this so they had to stop. Wednesday morning, his numbers began to go down into the lower 90's. At this point, they decided to move him to Baptist ICU. Moves are hard on patients. It made me nervous...Anyway, he made the move fine. They moved him b/c Baptist has more resources than Select. Jon still has the same doctors seeing him. They put Jon on a new bed. It turns him completely over onto his tummy. He stays like this for 3 hours and then he turns to his back for 1 hour. This is not going to be pretty. It will cause his face, eyes, and lips to swell. He will also have a lot of secretions drain from him. This may not look good, but it is good for his lungs. They also started him on the nitric oxide. He was not requiring this, but the doctor thought it might help him faster. After they started the nitric they were hoping for one of his numbers to go up at least by 10 points. It went up over 100 points!!!! Also, his respirations went down from 20-25 breaths per minute to around 12. (We breathe about 15.) They were able to move his oxygen down much more quickly. By late last night, he was down to 50%. This is a much safer oxygen level. His ABGs are adequate now. Today (Thursday), they think that Jon may have fluid in his body cavity so they did a CAT scan. If he does, they will insert a tube to drain it. They have not found any new infections. The doctor thought that Jon's x-ray may have looked a little worse today, but he does not know why so they are checking everything out. Overall, they are happy with the progress Jon has made since yesterday. He is still VERY sick! Please continue to pray for him and the medical staff. It is so apparent to us that God is working each and every day! Jon has continued to respond to treatments that people do not normally respond to or sometimes they do not respond to them. God is directing the medical team and is healing Jon. I pray that He continues to do so. Jon is such a precious person to all of us. I keep thinking about how he makes each of us feel when he is around. Somehow, he seems to always make us smile:) As always, lots of prayers!