Mike has been complaining of
discomfort with his back and the breathing mask he has been wearing. The mask
digs into his cheeks, his nose, and the back of his neck. The nurse called the respiratory
therapist. He came in. We hoped he would
adjust the mask, but instead, he decided to give him a break. He put those nose
thingies on instead, but the mask is 10x stronger than the regular nose
thingies. He said he tried this before,
but after a certain point, his oxygen level drops, and he had to go back on the
high powered mask thing.
The therapist said he special
ordered a more comfortable version of this mask for Mike. I’m telling you, he is getting the best care
possible, as far as I can see. Do they
make mistakes? I’m sure. Last I looked, the medical staff here were all human
beings. Can’t beat that limitation!
The respiratory therapist got a
little overly enthusiastic about sharing information with me. He told me he was weak and had fluid in his
lungs. And then he says something about
congestive heart failure. Huh??? He took
it back in a few minutes, saying it was his kidney problems that were making
matters more complicated. His heart is as healthy as any 78-year-old heart can
be.
He told me that he suctioned out
his lungs! Yikes! Yes, he said, it is very uncomfortable to have that
done. I pulled out about 2 cups of
liquid. Mike is not strong enough to cough it up himself.
Once he had the nose breathing
tubes in, he could talk more. He said he
was scared. I asked him if he was afraid
of dying. He said yes. I told him that
we were all worried about it last week, but now he was so much better they were
thinking of moving him out of the ICU on to the floor. That made him feel
somewhat better.
He asked the therapist what he
could do. Oh, dear. How do you tell a control freak, ”nothing .” I did some
healing with him on recognizing his helplessness. There is nothing he can
do. Both he and his mother told the
story of how she let him cry endlessly when he was a baby because the doctor
told her to. He was crying in his crib,
and she was crying in the living room. (It came out later the doctor didn’t
treat his kids that way. It was advice
from the pediatric books of the time.) Mike felt his whole childhood that he
had to do everything on his own; he thought he couldn’t rely on his parents.
Hmm! Time to learn that strategy doesn’t always work. To boot, he wasn’t alone
in his crib. His mom had not abandoned
him. The work we did relax him somewhat.
I made it clear that we are in for
a long haul. An old friend of mine contacted me through Facebook and told me
that his brother had suffered from this. His brother emailed me with a pretty
detailed description of his recovery. It
was long; it was hard; it was dangerous.
He was in and out of hospitals for five months, and he was 54 and didn’t
have kidney problems.
Assuming Mike will be in any state
to do something for half an hour to an hour straight when he comes home, there
are those of us who are already planning alternatives. The Bible study group can meet at our
house. My niece Shivani says her partner
can set up some long-distance tech stuff so he can counsel and teach courses
right from our home too.
The big thing for Mike will be accepting
limits, temporary or permanent. Right
now, he seems well enough that it’s a good time to start praying for that for
him. If he comes out of this with gratitude for the experience, he will be a
truly amazing person with so much more to offer.
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