Well it’s Monday morning and the sun is shining. We’ve got the shades open and are giving Corey a little Vitamin D Therapy today. I’ll admit I’m soaking it up too.

Sunday was most definitely a quieter day than Saturday, and Corey looked infinitely more peaceful throughout the day and night than he did after a very rough Saturday night. Megan, the same nurse we had Saturday, arrived for her shift Sunday morning and, after assessing Corey and being briefed by Blake, the night nurse, said that Corey was “a lot sicker today than he was yesterday.” She made the call to not allow visitors on Sunday and got no arguments from me.

After the attending physician and ICU team made their rounds Sunday morning, they all decided it was in his best interest to place him in a medically induced coma, which they also refer to as “medically paralysis.” This would cause his body to shut off all its “fight” against what was going on, and concentrate instead on deep healing.

The Monday morning team arrived a bit ago and after an assessment they’ve decided to keep him in this state another couple days – at least. We’re still unsure what caused this and what we’re treating. I’m really, really hoping that some of those cultures from the bronchoscopy they did Thursday begin coming back today. The bottom line is that he is not improving. They’re still treating him with broad-spectrum antibiotics but whatever infection or reaction caused him to get to this place is not getting better. The infection is not going down so he isn’t really responding to the broad-spectrum antibiotics they’re using. They know he has a form of pneumonia because he has a ton of fluid in his lungs, but they’re not yet sure if it’s a viral or bacterial pneumonia, or some other kind of lung infection as well. I think Dr. Diaz, the infectious diseases doctor, is as anxious to get those results back as we are. Megan told me yesterday that he’s about the best and once he gets an answer, he’s ready to treat whatever this is, and that he is very good at what he does.

He’s also up against a condition called ARDS: Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. ARDS is a “rapidly progressive disease occurring in critically ill patients. The main complication in ARDS is that fluid leaks into the lungs making breathing difficult or impossible. ARDS occurs when there is trauma to the lungs, either directly or indirectly.” So the pneumonia has led to a very serious respiratory condition and until they can figure out what’s causing the problem in the lungs and begin treating it, they can’t really make any forward progress.

Again, all this is barring a miraculous healing.

Their plan today is to change up the medication they’re using to create the medically induced coma because they don’t want too much of any one type of paralytic to get into the body. They also need to try and decrease the fluids he’s retaining (he’s starting to resemble the Pillsbury Dough Boy) and get some of the fluid drained from his lungs. Because he’s not able to move around on his own, the body is not able to expel those fluids on their own, so they come in and move him around and rotate his position every couple hours. The main thing right now is to keep him comfortable and keep his body from fighting against itself, and to do his moving for him.

I have worship music playing right up next to his ear today. They’re still not allowing any visitors except family and pastors, so it’s worship music and prayer – all day today. I don’t care which combination of the above the Lord uses to bring him through this, I’m just looking for some forward progress.