{"id":896,"date":"2025-06-03T11:15:14","date_gmt":"2025-06-03T14:15:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/03-06\/"},"modified":"2025-06-03T18:40:40","modified_gmt":"2025-06-03T21:40:40","slug":"03-06","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/03-06\/","title":{"rendered":"03\/06"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

11:12<\/h3>\n\n

Last night we followed the doctor’s advice and both went home, leaving Gabriel alone.<\/p>\n\n

\n (First time he’s staying alone for a night, it’s clearly not easy to handle)<\/em>\n <\/p>\n\n

This morning when I arrived, his oxygen saturation was at 87% with the alarm beeping…<\/p>\n\n

I quickly tried to understand why, rapidly analyzing the machines, tubes, and results.<\/p>\n\n

His PCR hasn’t increased, he doesn’t have a fever, but his x-ray was a bit whiter. He also has more CO2 in his system, if I understand correctly. <\/p>\n\n

The doctor told me via WhatsApp: <\/p>\n\n

\n “He seems to have atelectasis in the upper right lobe, otherwise the appearance is even a bit better. We will intensify respiratory physiotherapy and start a pulmonary anti-inflammatory treatment. To help this lung.” <\/em>\n <\/p>\n\n

In a panic, I asked the physiotherapist to come see him. She gave him a rather intense session and he went up to 97. Then 40 minutes later he was back to 90 and I had to leave because it was bath time… <\/p>\n\n

1:49 PM<\/h3>\n\n

I saw the doctor, here is his report for the day (hoping not to distort or forget anything):<\/p>\n\n

\n General Condition<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

Gabriel is clinically stable today, like yesterday.<\/p>\n\n

\n Lungs<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

There is a new partial atelectasis of a lung lobe. This seems treatable with respiratory physiotherapy. <\/p>\n\n

The doctor told us that he doesn’t have, for now, obliterative bronchiolitis (severe chronic damage to small bronchi), but he has the potential to develop it.<\/p>\n\n

He will most likely have lifelong lung problems. But we believe in miracles! <\/p>\n\n

\n Speaking of Miracles<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

Before Gabriel was put on ECMO, a doctor had told me that Gabriel was really in a bad way and that it was becoming very complicated for them.<\/p>\n\n

This same doctor, whom I hadn’t seen for several weeks, came back this morning.<\/p>\n\n

He told me he couldn’t believe how awake he was. He didn’t think his brain would hold up against everything he went through. <\/p>\n\n

\n About This Morning and His Low Oxygen Saturation<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

Several possible causes were mentioned:<\/p>\n\n

    \n
  • Poor placement of the saturation sensor \u2192 ruled out, as I had already asked to change feet.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Secretions in the lungs \u2192 likely requiring respiratory physiotherapy, which was indeed beneficial for him.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Atelectasis discovered today. For info, atelectasis is when part of the lung collapses or no longer inflates normally. Basically, air can no longer enter a part of the lung properly, so it doesn’t function well for blood oxygenation. <\/li>\n\n\n\n
  • Lack of hemoglobin \u2192 a transfusion is scheduled for the afternoon<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n

    Note: Please consider donating blood, Gabriel has already had several blood transfusions since his arrival, it has saved his life. Thank you to the donors! <\/p>\n\n

    \n Treatment<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

    Following the visit of the gastroenterologist and pulmonologist, a targeted treatment against the partially controlled lung infection was initiated, based on:<\/p>\n\n

      \n
    • Azithromycin for 5 days: used for its anti-inflammatory effect, in addition to its antibiotic role.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    • Corticosteroids (probably methylprednisolone) have been started.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n

      Pulse therapy (intensive corticosteroid treatment) is being considered for later.<\/p>\n\n

      For the tracheostomy considered yesterday, for now it’s not yet necessary. We’ll first see how the treatments go. <\/p>\n\n

      \n Doctor’s Conclusion<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

      No worsening, but still a serious and stable condition.A long journey ahead. Patience and resilience are essential. <\/p>\n\n

      \n Our Conclusion<\/strong>\n <\/p>\n\n

      We will never leave him alone at night again.<\/p>\n\n

      Good News<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n

      After the baths, I was able to spend 1.5 hours with him, during which he was fully awake. A true joy to see him with those big eyes open! <\/p>\n\n

      PS for Portuguese readers:<\/strong> I had to change the automatic translator for the Portuguese version. If you see that the translation seems strange, let me know. <\/p>\n\n

      <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      11:12 Last night we followed the doctor’s advice and both went home, leaving Gabriel alone. (First time he’s staying alone for a night, it’s clearly not easy to handle) This morning when I arrived, his oxygen saturation was at 87% with the alarm beeping… I quickly tried to understand why, rapidly analyzing the machines, tubes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","iawp_total_views":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-896","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-non-categorise"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=896"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/896\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=896"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=896"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hopeforgabriel.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=896"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}