Hi everyone. I was unable to go to Philly today, so it's just Jerry, Sr. and Jr's best friend Bert with him. Apparently it's been a fairly hectic one. They found on this a.m.'s chest x-ray that he does have "pretty bad pneumonia". They started him on 3 different I.V. antibiotics, because it will take 24 hours for the lab cultures to come back so they know specifically which he needs. I guess it was bad enough for them not to wait, although given that he had a cold last week when this happened, we're not terribly surprised.
They have also discovered a PE (pulmonary embolism - or blood clot in his lungs) today. Okay, so he's now developed the two things I understood to be his biggest risks. At the same time. They have started him on a blood thinner called Heparin, injected sub-Q (under the skin). They are evaluating him for an IVC filter (it's kinda like and expandable screen that fits in the large vein below the kidneys to catch blood clots from his legs before they get to his heart or lungs). I guess that means that they will be doing that later today.
One of the bad things about pneumonia is that they won't put in a tracheotomy if he has pneumonia, due to the almost certain infection at the trach site that would develop. For you medical people out there, he is being sedated with Dilaudid and Proprytol (?sp), and they'll keep him heavily sedated for 48 hours to really let his body and mind rest.
Please pray that Jr. will not lose heart when his sedation wears off if the tube is still in place in his mouth. Please pray for his body to be able to withstand all the assaults (present and future) that he's facing. Please pray for all the staff caring for him... for their knowledge, ability, and observation to all be in Jr's best interest. Please pray for God's grace for all of us as we journey through this dark valley. Thanks.
Linda & Jerry Hambleton
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