Hi Friends and Family, I hope I have been able to reach out to as many of you as possible by phone or text, so please bear with me if I’ve missed giving you updates.

If you haven’t heard, Carrie is in the hospital ICU with Covid pneumonia. Yesterday she was placed in a medically induced coma and on a ventilator.

This was largely a precautionary measure for Carrie, and we were able to decide to do it together while she was awake. The reason was that she was having a very hard time using the bipap mask. She was reacting to the steroids having panic attacks, and her respiration rate was peaking out at 50 breaths a minute. Her oxygen saturation was holding on the mask, but it wasn’t sustainable for her to continue working that hard to breathe. So she was placed on the ventilator to give her a break. She went on the ventilator yesterday at around 3:00pm or so. When she did, they set her respirations at 22 per minute and her oxygen level went higher than its been since she’s been in the hospital – 96-97+%.

On the ventilator today, they have been slowly titrating her oxygen levels down. When I spoke to the nurse a few moments ago, Carrie had titrated from 100% oxygen down to 60% oxygen, while maintaining the same oxygen saturation level. So, she’s definitely moving in the right direction. The goal was today to attempt to reach 50%, at which point they can begin to move from fully assisted breathing to partially assisted. This would mean that Carrie is starting to breathe on her own again.

So far, they have been checking the baby every day. Every day he is lively, healthy, and has a good heart rate, praise God! Spoiler alert: yes, our baby is a boy. His name is Jeremiah Allen.

The only minor complication so far has been that her kidney function is declining. This is most likely due to her autoimmune conditions, her pregnancy, and the drugs they’ve given her to help her lungs. There is no permanent damage, but if her kidney blood values don’t turn around soon then they may do dialysis on her until her kidneys catch up. They will test her blood values again in the morning before making that decision.

I have hopefully updated you all on Mom as well, she went to the ER this morning having the same shortness of breath, also from Covid pneumonia. So far she is still in the ER awaiting a bed on a medical floor. She is on oxygen and her saturations are good. She will likely be there for a few days as they monitor her and help her try to regain a little more lung function.

I apologize for the impersonal Facebook updates, but I’m falling short of keeping everyone updated by text and phone calls. Please feel free to continue to reach out or ask questions, you all have been such an incredible support for me and my family. We truly appreciate every word of encouragement, prayer, and the many, many acts of service that you all have shown us.

Please continue to keep Carrie and Mom in your prayers. We are definitely not out of the woods yet. But God has been gracious and we have felt His healing hand over us.