FEBRUARY 10, 2020
“No matter what happens, you are my beautiful wife. Whatever life throws at us, it’s not always easy but no matter what I’m yours.”
Those were some of the last words Jon texted Megan. Unfiltered and completely unprompted. Megan found the conversation today while reeling from this morning’s update.
Life did not throw Megan and Jon an easy day today. Actually today downright sucked. In an attempt to dial down his Ecmo Jon’s blood pressure dropped from 70 to 40 so they had to turn it back up. He’s anemic so he received a blood transfusion yesterday as well as today, and a platelet transfusion today to combat his severely low platelet count (thrombocytopenia). For now they are leaving his chest tubes in to help combat his collapsed lung. They successfully performed his tracheotomy but in order to do this, they had to sedate him. The last time he was sedated (for his leg amputations) his heart function became dramatically worse. We’re hoping that won’t be the case as they didn’t anesthetize him quite as much this time. With his tracheotomy they also put in a Dophoff tube which is a small, more flexible and therefore a more comfortable option than the traditional nasogastric tube.
Jon’s high steroid dose over the course of his treatment continues to wreak havoc on his circulation causing ischemia which is inadequate blood supply to his organs, body and especially heart. But without those steroids, Jon’s heart just wasn’t functioning. His team is working tirelessly to get his steroid dosage down as low as possible to limit the ischemia but for some of Jon’s body, the irreversible damage is already done.
So yes, today was the opposite of easy for Megan. In fact, I don’t think the word “easy” will be in her vocabulary for a long time. The pieces of her former life are slowly crumbling at her feet, and she’s watching helplessly.
Jon ended his text with:
“We’ve been through 10 years, 20 years from now I’ll say the same thing.”
Although right now Megan is living minute to minute, there just has to be a version of this life with Jon 20 years from now. It won’t look anything like their first 10 years, but we refuse to accept that Jon fought this hard and came this far to stop now.
Jon’s team told Megan today that they plan to “keep on keepin’ on”. Through the support of her amazing doctors and this phenomenal community who has already given so much, I have no doubt we will help Megan pick up the pieces of her former life and put them back together. There just really is no other option.
#EffSTSS
#WatsonNation