Support The Woodward Family

2/21

Two weeks ago today, right around this time was the most terrifying, heart wrenching, night of my life.

To paint a medical picture of what was going on, my unconscious husband who had undergone two surgeries in the OR to remove infection and one surgical procedure bedside to insert a balloon into his heart was maxed out on every single crash cart drug. When you hear “code blue” a team rushes in and starts administering certain meds to jump start the heart. Josh was already on all of them. At max possible dose. Two cardiologists were consulted to discuss what they should do. His heart rate was around 140 and his BP was around 50/30. He had already had a heart attack earlier in the day. It was not good.

Two doctors pulled me in a room to tell me that what he needed to survive was essentially a bypass surgery, but that he would not survive surgery. So the only thing left to do was to wait and see if his body would start to recover, there was literally nothing left to do. Nothing.

“He has about a 5% chance of making it through the night”.

“Go get Erica” I yelled out in response. I don’t know why. And I don’t know why I didn’t ask for all three, sorry Mandy & Sarah.

Erica came in and they repeated the news, I turned to her and said “5% Erica.....” and collapsed into a sob.

Erica got out of her chair onto the ground, grabbed my hands in hers and got in my face and said “you’re missing the second part, Chelsea, they said chance! He has a chance ok??? And if they are only giving us 5% then we will take that 5% and we will fight.”

I will love her forever for this.

One by one everyone came in the room to say goodnight to Josh. And although no one said it out loud, they may have also quietly been saying good-bye.

I settled in for the night. I decided I would take it one hour at a time and that I would not be fearful, I would be thankful. I would be thankful that if he was going to pass, I would be there and the last thing I got to do was be alone with him holding his hand.

One hour at a time.

Look at the person you love most in the world and imagine truly not knowing if in one hour from now they would still be alive.

That was my reality all night that night.

I have more to say on this, but, I need to make sure I still have things to write about in the future.

Two weeks later, here we are. Today he snuggled a therapy dog for hours. It made my heart soar. His stats were rock solid all day. He is sepsis free. Can’t say it enough, we have a long road ahead, but man.... I’m so glad we’re here and not where we were two weeks ago....or worse.

Prayers: a good night sleep and a dose of strength. Josh did not get the tube out today (wah) and he’s discouraged and a little anxious. And just for continued healing. He still has a lot going on. Pray we keep trending in the right direction.

#woodwardstrong #thefivepercent

2/18:
It’s our last day to be sad. We decided.

I came in this afternoon and said, we’re done being sad ok? It’s time to work! It’s time
to be #woodwardstrong

I told him what the surgeon said, that guys like Josh who make such leaps and bounds like he has can have the option to rehab at home. We can turn our home into a space for him to heal once he’s done here at the hospital (still quite some time for that to happen). That was apparently the magic because he was motivated to eat his dinner and now he is working on drinking his ginger ale all by himself. It’s sad to watch him struggle to bring a straw to his mouth, but it’s great to see his fighting spirit back. The last two days he’s been so incredibly depressed.

Okay, news on the hand. It won’t get touched for a week, at least, so there is no say if fingers will have to go or not but it does look like his pointer finger and top half of middle finger will have to go and the tip of the thumb. But otherwise, all wounds are healing as they should be with no concern.

Today was hard, but productive and ended with a great deal of hope!

#woodwardstrong #thefivepercent

Insta: chelsea_woodward

2/17:

MY MIRACLE!
My undeniable miracle.
My second lease on life.

Today was the best day of my life.
But it was maybe the worst day of Josh’s life.

He’s awake, aware, extubated, conscious, forming his own unique thoughts, maybe a little confused, in pain, very weak, vulnerable.... it goes on.

He doesn’t remember much, but he’s already having some PTSD from the intubation. He is really down and frightened about the road ahead of him.

I have spent most of my day learning what my new role as his caretaker is going to look like. Isn’t love amazing? I’m holding my husband’s entire body weight on my chest while nurses tend to him. He tells me not to drop him but I’m so steady in this moment I’m positive I won’t. His skin is flaking off all over me and all I can think is how much I love him and that I would do this every day for the rest of my life so long as it means I get to keep him. But the good news is, he is going to get stronger every single day ❤️❤️❤️❤️every. Day.

Y’all keep asking about the hand: the surgeon is coming to look first thing tomorrow morning. It doesn’t look pretty though. I’d be amazed if he didn’t lose fingers. But God has been showing off all week so.....

So my poor sweet baby needs prayers for his mind. He needs to BELIEVE he will get better. He needs peace. He needs the ability to comprehend that HE is PROOF that miracles still happen.

And the hand could use prayers too...
so could the kidneys....

But we are miles away, light years away from where we were last week.