Adam's Medical Fund

What Happened

The week before Christmas all three of our children  came down with the flu at the same time. We kept them home and made them chicken noodle soup to ride it out. By Christmas day they were all feeling better. There were no more fevers and we enjoyed a nice Christmas together.

The next day Adam woke up feeling awful. He told me he felt like he had a fever. I began to care for him the way I had cared for our children. We just thought we would ride it out the same as we had he previous week.

The sickness continued for the rest of the week. His fever wouldn't break for very long even with a fever reducer. On New Year's Eve we couldn't go anywhere because of the sickness, so the Mommy in me kicked into gear and I made a lot of confetti and filled some balloons. We did some activities every hour until midnight, and then we popped the confetti filled balloons to ring in the New Year. We all had a great time, even Adam who still felt weak and under the weather. 

On New Year's Day, Adam got worse and by that night you could hear the fluid in his lungs when he breathed. Someone had advised us to get some Mucinex D, but I was unable to get it from the pharmacy since everywhere was closed for the holiday. I grabbed some regular maximum strength Mucinex and hoped it would help him cough up some of the fluid. While trying to cough, his back went out and he was in terrible pain. It didn't work. I stayed up with him all night. I tried to find a comfortable postition for him to sleep and still breathe, but nothing worked. 

Early the next morning a friend advised him to go to the ER at Grandview Health Center because they were great and would get you in and out fast. So I took him to the hospital and they did get us back pretty quickly. Once he was connected to all of the machines they showed that his oxygen level was about 85 and it should be 90 or higher. The ER doctor decided to admit him for a couple days to keep an eye on him. Later that night, they were giving him some oxygen and breathing treatments and he was feeling better. I went home to care for the kids. He told us goodnight by video chat on the phone and everything seemed fine. 

I woke to a video message of Adam on a ventilator typing to me that his stats kept dropping and they were moving him to ICU. I got to the hospital as fast as I could and over the course of the day he continued to get worse. They decided to intubate him and keep him sedated on the ventilator to help him breathe. The nurse encouraged me to go home and get some rest because he was fine and they were watching him very closely. 

I never went to sleep that night. At 11:00 p.m. the pulmonologist called and said they were going to put Adam on a lung bypass machine called ECMO. He explained that this was the last resort. My mother, Adam's sister and myself waited all night for the procedure to be done. We had a great medical staff and the nurse came in periodically and made sure we understood all that was happening and he gave us updates.

At about 8:00 a.m. we were allowed to see him. It was unreal to me that my strong, healthy husband had ended up here in a medically induced coma on a breathing and lung bypass machine fighting for his life.

From here the doctors have said this machine will help take the place of his lungs, and while not completely, it will allow his lungs to take a break and hopefully give them time to heal. They have said that it all depends on Adam, but it could take anywhere from 1 to 3 weeks for him to be taken off of the ECMO bypass and ventilator. I have been warned that it is a long, slow road to recovery even after he is off of the machines.

Unfortunately, since we are self employed, we do not have health insurance. We are a little over a week into this and are already receiving medical bills. Adam is the one who runs the business and since making kettle corn requires a lot of strength to stir the hot, sticky, sweet popcorn, I am not able to do the work. I usually homeschool our three children and help him where I can. Our business is also very seasonal and dependent on the weather. This wet and very cold winter makes things much harder.

Adam has always been a very straightforward person with an amazing sense of humor. He is the Vice President of the Friends of Turkey Creek Nature Preserve and cares very deeply for his community. He is the kind of person who goes above and beyond when he sees someone in need. I guess the best way to describe him is loyal and dedicated. He is an amazing husband and wonderful father. We just want him to come home.

Because of the situation and his involvement in the community we have had people so generously want to donate and that has led us to start this gofundme. If you feel led, please consider helping us to get our lives back to normal after this terrible flu season.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extracorporeal_membrane_oxygenation