To everyone that loves John,
We started this blog to help everyone keep up to date with changes in John’s condition. We (Neil, Cal, Robin, and Deb) have tried to responsibly give these updates while protecting the children from the real possibility that John could succumb to his illness. This blog has kind of a life of its own, and if we don’t feed it with information daily then it seems to spawn rumors, bad and good, regarding John’s condition.
Saturday night was no exception. I received a call from Nancy McKeown, with a panicked voice she told me she had heard terrible news from a customer about John’s condition. I had talked to Karen Chapman not 2 hours prior and she had told me that she would call with any changes and that John was pretty stable. I thought, how could anyone know anything before me, but I got right on the phone with Karen to confirm that he was still battling. Talk about stressful.
Then I talk to a lot of people that think that John is going to walk through the door at any minute with his smile and, of course, something he thinks is witty to say. Let me tell you folks, John is seriously ill if and when he gets out of the hospital he will have an extremely difficult recovery. It may take months, even years for him to regain his strength and his abilities. This illness is scary!
Well, I (Neil) am here to tell you whole truth and nothing but the truth.
The H1N1 or Swine flu virus caused John to have a complete respiratory collapse which in turn caused other serious organ shutdowns and worries. As we have talked about previously, this syndrome is called ACRS (http://www.ards.org/learnaboutards/whatisards/brochure/) and this is what John is fighting for his life against at this point. Feel free to click on this link to read the brochure that explains the syndrome, the treatments, and recovery aspects.
John has been on the respirator now for three weeks, this is what has been keeping him alive. His lungs can recover, but remain with signs of cloudiness due to liquid and swelling of the pneumonia.
The problem with the respirator is that the peep (the pressure that keeps the lungs inflated) can also cause damage and scarring to the lungs. We have updated the blog in the past showing that this number, the peep, has been decreased from 19 to 10, which is good, however, the percentage of oxygen being used to maintain the level of oxygen saturation in his blood has been increased and decreased on a daily and sometimes hourly basis. The nurses and doctors try to keep the 02 saturation in John’s blood well in the 90’s and this is many times easier said than done.
John’s kidney’s shut down early on and he has been on dialysis almost continually since he was admitted. The kidney’s can recover and until John is further into his recovery the doctors don’t act like this is a big worry. At least this is probably the least of their worries with John at this time.
The latest worry that the doctors have is John’s inability to assimilate foods. They have tried with no success to feed John through a stomach tube. The worry with this is that maybe his stomach, or gut as the doctor says, has shut down like his kidneys leading to still more problems.
So, as of today, Sunday Nov. 15, John is still in dire circumstances. The course of action that has been on the drawing board for the last couple of days is to stabilize John enough to give him a tracheaoscopy in which they will place the breathing tube in his trachea rather than down his throat. Karen believes that he is stable enough and barring any drastic changes the tracheaoscopy will be done today. When they are able to complete this they will be able to remove him from the sedation that he has been on for the last three weeks. Once removed from sedation the doctors hope he may regain some of the function in his gut and kidneys.
Once again, I want to express that John is in very serious condition. He is not “out of the woods” by any stretch of the imagination. We need to give John all of our prayers and keep giving him prayers. He is not giving up, so let us not give up!
Please, please don’t believe or pass on any rumors that you may hear. We will do a better job of keeping everyone updated on this blog. I really believe that now John needs us all to be positive and say our prayers and believe in him. This is crunch time! Thanks
Neil Dundas
Team Chappy
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
MIRACLES HAPPEN
ReplyDeleteMy name is Heather and I am a coma survivor.
Until three months ago I was a 'healthy' 44 yr old mother of two. I have a rare autoimmune disease, which we had just gotten into remission after 2.5 years of chemo and pred. Out of the blue, some still unknown virus broke me. I went immediately into full respiratory failure, followed shortly by renal failure and spent 3 full weeks in a coma. I could not eat and developed pancreatitus. My vent pressure was 20 plus a peep. Rehab is difficult. Coma is a nightmare. In my coma, I would often hear everything that was going on around me. I knew when people were visiting and I knew when people were praying. The Dr.'s did not know what to do to save me. One suggested a very high dose of prednisone (anti-inflammatory). After grueling debate, they decided to try it. After my first intravenous pred my vent went from 20 plus a peep to 12 overnight. I started to come out of the coma, went to rehab for several weeks, and now Im home. It's still hard...but I am here. I wanted to remind you that miracles DO HAPPEN. I will pray for John as everyone else may want to try. I live in Maryland - but ran across this site while researching post coma related recovery issues. Don't ever give up hope. Tell John how strong he is and please don't talk in front of him as if he is not in the room. Coma is a strange combination of reality and an extremely vivid dream world...sometimes an upsetting dream. God's Speed.
Chappy, family and team.
ReplyDeleteTeam thank you for all the updates. That is always first on my list when I get on the computer. Karen and family, try to stay strong, think of the positive times and future times. Our prayers are always with you and our thoughts are with John and his fight against this crazy thing.
Kathy
We all need to have faith in our Lord...He performs medical miracles each and every day. My brother suffered an AAA, Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm, and was in a coma for three months. It was touch and go on a daily basis and there were many days when we thought he would never recover. His chance of recovery was less than 10%, but through prayer and his desire to live, he survived. Ultimately he lost a leg, has life-long health issues, but is thrilled to be alive. So keep the prayers going to God and don't give up hope. John is a survivor.
ReplyDeleteI had the great pleasure of playing for John when he was captain of Bletchley Rugby club and shared one or two beers.
ReplyDeleteOnly the other week was I with a few friends talking about the mad yank who had size 13 or 14 boots.
Never forgotten, sadly missed. We will toast his name for years to come.
Kevin Goodall