Blessings for the George Family

On Monday January 17, 2022, Michael tested positive for Covid-19. As the days progressed further, his symptoms seemed to worsen and become more severe. On day 9 (Wednesday, January 26), Michaels oxygen levels were hanging out around the low 90’s into the upper 80’s at times. He had also been fighting a fever every day since the beginning. This was taking a hard toll on his body. He was exhausted, tired of fighting, in desperate need of some relief. As Wednesday progressed, he was finding it was much harder to breathe and was getting so tired of having to fight this disease without any medical intervention. As a family we decided to take him to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Bellingham. After dropping him off, we got a call saying they wanted to admit him at least overnight or until improvements were made, which still could have been a few days. Initially, the oxygen he received at the ER helped to calm him and gave him some much needed relief. As Thursday rolled around, Michael seemed to be getting worse again. We had discussed treatment options and put him on a regimen of steroids and oxygen. Thursday was tough for all of us, him being alone in the hospital and us at home worrying and wondering what was going on was a nightmare. On Thursday evening, we pushed the idea of him coming home to recover further as the hospital makes it very difficult to sleep. The bed was starting to hurt Michaels back as well. He just wasn’t getting the type of peace he needed to properly heal and recover. We felt very confident that we could continue the same treatment at home if the doctor could prescribe us the steroid and some oxygen. Friday afternoon, we finally got the call that we could bring him home! Scared and full of anxiety of the unknown with the days ahead, we got him home and set up on oxygen. That night was very rough, his breathing was very abnormal, we all didn’t get much sleep, but we did count our blessing that he was home with us. 

As the days at home went on, we saw baby steps of improvement every day. At times there difficult obstacles to overcome, but he kept pushing and fighting to get better. On Thursday, February 3rd we took him in for a follow up with his primary care physician. She checked his vitals, listened to his lungs and took some blood tests. His vitals were great, his lungs were clear and his blood came back with a red flag. They tested him to see his potential for blood clots and that result was very elevated! We took him in a hurry to get a chest CT scan to check for blood clots in his lungs. Thankfully we heard shortly after that he had no clots! He still was suffering from what they call “Covid Pneumonia” though. That was why he was finding it hard to breathe still. 

We are now on day 21 as of Sunday, February 6th. Michael continues to improve everyday. Our latest praise report is that he has been off of oxygen for over 24 hours now! We are so thankful for his continued improvement and thanking Jesus everyday for His presence in this crazy covid journey. He still has a long road ahead. He is still very weak, and tires easily with any excursion. We don’t know how long he will have to be out of work. 

So many people have asked “How can we help?” This is one way that we can help bless the George Family during this time of recovery. With medical bills on their way and being unable to work, this is one small way to ease the stress.