Aaron's Covid Recovery

I am sharing with you all my dads Covid journey. We, as a lot of you, feel kind of helpless and don’t know what to do to help. There are a lot of people asking “what can I do” and we feel like this might be a good way if anyone wanted to contribute financially. The last thing we want our parents to worry or stress about is medical bills that will start coming in. We have no idea how much anything is or will but with our dad in the hospital this long (and not knowing for how long) and our mom being by our dads side since the beginning, is on a leave from work and balancing the needs of the farm as well.

There is a long road ahead of us but with prayers and a positive mindset, we will get there. Slow and steady wins the race. We thank every single one of you that have reached out and has helped so far. My dad will be so appreciative when he finds out what everyone has done for him and our family during this time. Thank you, please keep the positive thoughts and prayers coming!!

On Monday, November 15, my dad was starting to feel under the weather, so decided to schedule a covid test but was continuing to do normal chores on the farm. By Tuesday, he received the positive Covid results with a phone call from a sweet nurse. It was interesting because she seemed to be extra concerned about him taking care of himself because he is a farmer. By Tuesday evening, he was in bed and feeling quite lousy. His temperature was 102.3. The battle of the fever had begun. By mid-morning Thursday, we decided to get him seen, and was taken to urgent care.

While in the exam room, he indicated he was dizzy and fainted. They rushed in with oxygen and the ambulance was called to transport him to Waconia ER where he was discharged hours later. They did a CT scan but nothing was indicated. The remainder of Thursday was rough and then it blended into Friday and he kept up the exhausting cycle of fever reduction, and pain mitigation for his back. By evening he was begging for help and his oxygen levels were in the 80s and with the advice of his primary care physician, he was transported to North Memorial, Robbinsdale where he has primarily been since Friday, November 19.

He was admitted that night after discovering he had developed COVID pneumonia and was transported up to a private room. He spent days on heavy oxygen struggling to keep his levels up. Early Monday, November 22, he was transferred to the ICU after moving from a nasal cannula to a Bi-Pap. Spent the following days struggling to breathe, eat, and drink. On Thanksgiving Day, he was put on a ventilator in a medically induced coma for the next 25 days. He experienced acute hypodermic respiratory failure due to Covid-19.

His Covid had been complicated by bacterial pneumonia, bilateral spontaneous pneumothorax, pneumomediastinum, and critical illness myopathy/neuropathy. These are medical terms that mean he had multiple areas of lung collapse, excessive air leaking around his lungs, and severe infection.

During the time on the ventilator, he was placed on paralytic medication to paralyze all muscles in his body to allow his lungs to receive every bit of oxygen while they healed. It was a very slow and dreadful process watching his stats slowly begin to drop, then become better after 3 weeks. Due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to visit him until he was cleared by the infectious disease team. However, we were able to zoom him during that time with an iPad with help from the ICU nurses. We would talk to him as if he was taking a deep restful nap, but he was unable to respond. We just believed he could hear us. On December 6, he was cleared for 2 visitors where my mom and sister spent each and every day visiting with him. I was only able to join via FaceTime due to restrictions.

After 3 full weeks on the ventilator, they slowly started the weaning process. Beginning with lowering sedation to see how he would tolerate it. As most would, his body was trying to reject the ventilator by coughing so they would increase sedation once again. After days of slowly trying to back off, he would start to respond with an eyebrow raise to our questions and even attempt to open his eyes.

On Friday, December 17, they felt it was time to move from the ventilator tubes down the throat to a trach to wean him off the vent completely as well as installed a G-Tube (feeding tube) directly into his stomach to eliminate one less tube down his throat. This tube will be removed 6 weeks from that date. By Saturday, December 18th he was completely off sedation and was wide awake — however, unable to speak with the trach tube preventing air to his vocal cords. He was very scared and confused. My mom and sister were there and had to break the news and remind him why he was there and what was going on. He spend the next 5 days mouthing words to us and we had to try and read lips to understand his needs.

Within a few days, they took the vent away and were feeding oxygen through the trach. On December 21, the Speech Therapist came in to evaluate how he was handling no vent and put in a speaking valve. My dad was able to use his voice for the first time in over 30 days and shouted "Good Morning Sunshine" and there wasn't a dry eye from any of the nursing staff. He said he felt so free to finally make his needs known by asking as simple as "I need water." He finally could ask why he can't move any of his body. Due to the days on the paralytic medication and ventilator, his muscles have all been lost. He went in weighing over 240lbs to now 174lbs in a matter of one month. From here things began to move fast.

Daily PT/OT/ Speech Therapy has come in to help him move his body and regain his strength in all areas, including his swallowing. He has now needed to relearn everything. How to swallow, how to move his arms, legs, feet, stand, walk, etc.

On December 24, he was moved from North Memorial to Regency Hospital to gain a bit more strength and wean off the trach with oxygen. During his 10 days at Regency, he was weaned from the trach, passed a swallow test to eat real foods, but also developed a sharp pain in his upper right abdomen. Eventually leading him back to North Memorial on January 2, for an emergency gallbladder procedure the next day. He had a drain tube installed to drain the infection causing major inflammation doubling his gallbladder in size. At this time, he is too weak to undergo surgery for removal of the gallbladder with the risk of needing to go back on the vent. So in the meantime, he will live with this drain tube for a minimum of 6 weeks. A few days later they removed the trach where now all that will remain is a scar.

The following week his next struggle was his mind. He is struggling with depression and hopeless feelings. With support from close family, friends, and a psych consultation, he has been reminded of how far he has come and understands he has a lot of life to live for.

Today he is now "pain-free" from the gallbladder and slowly gaining more strength each day. He can now minimally use his arms to finally scratch his face and dial a phone. He still has a long way to go to get him back in his tractors but he is determined. We now wait for an opening at the inpatient rehab floor at North Memorial where he will undergo intense 3 hours a day therapy to get him really moving and going again.

After this intense rehab program, he will come home still very weak. We will need to begin modifications to the home to allow for his recovery and will need 24/7 care/monitoring for the first few months. He's come a long way over the last 50 days and counting on this covid journey.