Improvement with Joe.

It looks like we may very well be getting our miracle that we needed.

Joe had a 0% chance of surviving on Saturday and Sunday. On Monday it was 2%. Yesterday morning it was 3.5%. He's been in MASSIVE systems failure of at least 8 different systems.

However then yesterday small miracles started happening:
His kidneys are functioning again on their own and he put out more then he took in yesterday.
His liver enzymes are off the chart because the liver is in shock and it does that.
His lungs are still filled with fluid, but his oxygen need was decreased from 70% to 40% - HUGE change.

They found the source of the infection on Monday and cut open an area around his ankle and drained an unexpected  amount of infection. That was the catalyst. that had to change first and then his fever went down and his body started to work again. His BP was holding strong with less and less medications... and by 5:30 last night the balloon was out of his heart and the pump is gone! Today they may take him off the dialysis, and IF he continues to make this much improvement, then the ventilator is taken away tomorrow and they are waking him up.

the staff is amazed and you can tell the difference in their demeanor. He is still in a lot of risk though. He has so many IV lines in, and if any of them get infected it will be a different story - however his chances are better. I'll be leaving for the hospital by 10 ( can't really get into CCU before - even for me). Hoping for fabulous news today, but am realistic and know he may be in trouble still.

the hospital staff wants me to talk to one of their social workers because I appear to be handling it all extremely well. The intensivist is afraid I'm going to break badly. I should have my pastor talk to her about the MASSIVE meltdown I had on Monday in the hospital chapel.

not fully out of the woods yet..but maybe we are seeing the trees thinning and are closer to out of the woods then we think.