On January 25th, 2020 Paul Edgerton (who we all refer to as ‘Bear’)started as a normal day with his wife Nicole.  They were putting together a wedding scrapbook they’ve procrastinated for 10 years and awaited the arrival of Paul’s mom Peggy.  While waiting, Paul  suddenly felt excruciating pain in his abdomen and told Nic he thought he needed to go to the hospital. As they were ready to walk out the door Paul collapsed on the kitchen floor.  Nicole dialed 911.  After bloodwork, xrays and tests Paul had severe pancreatitis with pneumonia.  He was moved immediately to an intermediate care unit which is a step below ICU that same day.  The nurse was kind enough to set up a cot and make a bed for Nic in his room so she could spend the night with him.

He was put on 6 liters of oxygen and received pain medication every hour around the clock until they decided it was time for him to be moved midnight Sunday to the medical ICU unit.  He was unable to obtain enough oxygen to profuse his body and his pain was uncontrollable.

By Monday, January 27, things started to decline. He was on a mask with 8 liters of oxygen and barely satting above 85.  It was at that time the doctors decided they needed to intubate (put him on a ventilator) and sedate him.  He then has a jugular line placed and is on a constant fentanyl and versed drip to keep him comfortable.  They dis labs and chest X-ray that morning and we learned that his kidneys had shut down, as he had never had kidney problems in the past. He was at this point, unable to urinate on his own.   This starts the day Paul began fighting for his life.

On Sat. Upon arrival to hospital  Paul’s creatinine level was .97,  Sunday was .79 and by Monday had jumped to 3.54.  They drew labs Wednesday  morning and his creat level had jumped to above 6.  Wednesday morning he had a port placed on the left side of his neck and his dialysis journey began.

Nicole, who at this point is devastated, exhausted, helpless and has also been out of work on FMLA since January 24, has been sleeping on the bench in his room in the ICU.  She has been by Paul’s side, only leaving to care for the animals that they both love dearly.  His mom and mother in law have also been present everyday as well as his brother who was able to come from New York from Monday to Friday.

Paul is being fed by an NG tube inserted through his nasal cavity and down to his jejunum, and has an OG tube that is constantly suctioning sludge and bile from his stomach.  Wednesday he had his first dialysis treatment.  He then began spiking temperatures up to 103.5, sometimes putting a cooling blanket to help bring temp down.  A sputum culture revealed MRSA.  He is on 3 different antibiotics to fight off the infection which the doctors are watching intensely.

A repeat CT scan was done on Saturday and showed that he had pleural effusions in his lungs and his pancreas was beginning to become necrotic. While he was on dialysis, the IR team came in and drained 400 mL of fluid out of his lungs. They cultured it and found no growth-which is a good thing- they found a lot of White Blood Cells working to fight off infection.   His creatine is over 7 and still unable to urinate and receiving dialysis treatments every other day.   Many friends, family and coworkers have been into visit and talked to him which we are truly thankful for.   The amount of prayers we have received has been overwhelming and amazing.

Sunday morning, February 2,  - he did it!  Nicole was woken up to the nurse telling her excitedly that he had peed -all on his own!! The dialysis is working!! She began crying in excitement because if you know Paul, he is a FIGHTER.

Fast forward to Tuesday February 4th 2020.   It is Paul’s 10th day in the hospital and 9th day in the ICU.  He has continued to urinate on his own and his creatinine has come down to 5.23 from 7.32 which means they are no longer shut down!  He is still intubated and sedated however he wakes up to the sound of Nicole’s voice and when he gets agitated or upset the nurses will wake her or have her calm him.  She seems to be one of the only things that calms him besides his gilly that he has with him and the monkey from the gift shop.   The love they have for each other is immense and pure.  She sings ‘Overwhelmed’ by Tim McMorris to him every night before she turns the white noise on and they go to sleep. This song he sang to her before they were married, it summed up their relationship completely.

They have moved his next CT scan to Friday, 2/7 as they wanted to coordinate it with the dialysis team.  this is so after the contrast is given it will be dialyzed out after the scan.   the scan will show us where the pancreas is healing without  doing any harm to the kidneys since he has started urinating again.  The pneumonia in his lungs still remains but the fluid thankfully has not returned.  He is still sedated and on a ventilator.   He has a long road to recovery, as the doctors are not sure when he can be weaned off of the vent as of right now. He is still running fevers, a cooling blanket and receiving dialysis. It could be several weeks until he makes a full recovery.



We are asking for your help. Any  amount would help, they have their mortgage, day to day bills to pay and as well as the medical from co-pays.  Paul is obviously out of work for an undetermined amount of time and Nicole being the caretaker is also out if work.    If you are unable to contribute, please share this and we ask that you please send prayers and love their way, as they need them now more than ever.



Thank you so much, from the bottom our hearts. ❤️

-Debbie & Shelly

*updates will be posted