Update from NC - His fight is over

Hello,

Last week went even worse which is why I have it as his fight is over.

Saturday afternoon it was so nice out I thought we should take a short walk at a nearby park. Tom wasn't feeling very good so I thought some fresh air would be good for him. I got him out to the sidewalk & brought the car over. He said......"Lori, take me to Atrium, I'm not going to make it." My heart immediately sunk & I ran back to the room to get the bag that has all of legal documents I have to carry with me at all times & then ran back out to the car. We drove the 5 minutes to the hospital & got him in fairly quickly.

The doctor ordered a chest CT to check for blood clots. One showed up & an unpleasant surprise. Tom asked the ER doctor, tell it to me straight....what did you see in the CT scan? The Dr said that his lungs are destroyed. Even if we were able to heal everything else in his body, the lungs can't produce the oxygen needed for the body to live.

We looked at each other with tear filled eyes & said please give us a minute. We both cried long & hard. He called his parents & his brother. I called our son while he was getting an ultrasound done of his legs to check for other blood clots. And we called our daughter together.

They transferred via ambulance from that small hospital to a bigger one 30 minutes south in Charlotte. We've been in a holding pattern while they try to figure out a way to get us home. Since he needs 4 liters of oxygen just to keep his stats up, he needs continuous oxygen. They estimated it would take 17 tanks of oxygen for the road trip home. That canceled out that. We are hoping to be on a commercial flight back to Iowa either Wednesday or Thursday. Some of our brethren from our fellowship group are going to drive our vehicle back along with our stuff in 2 different vehicles.

An air concentrator has been delivered to the house & hospice is getting set up for in home hospice.

This is not the outcome we wanted. We are still hoping for a miracle as they can & do happen.

I'll post more on Friday after we get home & get settled back in our home of almost 25 years.

Until next time,

Lori