Another Difficult Night

As you can tell by my posting at 2AM, it is a rough night. About 9PM Phil's oxygenation started to go down. All afternoon the sensor on his ear was reading 100% which we thought was good until they did a blood gas and his PaO2 was 48 which did not correspond to the ear reading. They thought this couldn't be right so they rechecked a blood gas and did a chest x-ray, and it confirmed that indeed his PaO2 was 48. This is very low and earlier they had told us they don't ever like it to be below 55 because then you may have trouble getting oxygen to your organs (like your brain). They couldn't figure out what was going on. His chest x-ray was clear and looked better than before. At one point his PaO2 dropped down to 40. They had to squeeze this bag to help get his saturations back up. He has been maxed out on the ventilator for several days now so all we could do is pray. Beth and I just stood there and started singing "You are God Alone" and "Bring Restoration" as they bagged him. His saturations came up some. The lung doctor came in and talked to us for a while and said that it would be a rocky night. He seemed to think that he got too much sedation during his trach procedure today that was hanging around in his body. He left and then his saturations continued to drop. Steve, his respiratory therapist, and Byron, his night nurse, worked at changing some more settings on the ventilator, like respiration rate and volume. Then Byron decided to lay him flat and that really seemed to help. They rechecked his PaO2 and it was 52 and then later it was 54. Not great, but better than 40. Will check another blood gas in the AM. His blood pressure also started to drop and they have him back up on one of his medications. His kidneys haven't been making much urine all day either. They are continuing on dialysis. Continue to pray as in the morning they are going to decide about some of these experimental therapies. Honestly, the doctors are so confused and this is what we have prayed for. Pray that God would intervene in a way only He can.

In between some of this, I was able to have a good talk with Byron about my medical knowledge and faith colliding on Saturday night, and how I have to trust that God is greater than all of the medical knowledge I have (or don't have) and have seen in the past. It gets hard though, don't get me wrong. This is something that I struggle with.

Today, God told Beth that He still isn't finished yet, and He told me that things are going to get worse before they get better. We have given him over to the Lord and don't know what He is up to and what this means but whatever it is, He is not done yet.

We thank everyone for continuing to intercede on Phil's behalf and for God's greater purpose in this. As I shared earlier, at times I don't know what to pray or how to pray, but it is comforting to know that the Holy Spirit is groaning with words I can't express. It is also comforting to know that as I am tired, there are fellow saints who are battling in prayer. We love you all. Beth and I are staying in the waiting room tonight and will keep you posted. Continue to pray as in the morning they are going to decide about some of these experimental therapies. Honestly, the doctors are so confused and this is what we have prayed for. Pray that God would intervene in a way only He can.