The End Part 3 of 4

On Sunday, April 12, 2026, everything changed. He was very distended. An alert nurse that I credit with saving his life that day called respiratory. Respiratory called the rapid response team. I had to go out of the room and sit in the hallway. After a few minutes the doctor comes out and said they tried to intubate and lost his pulse. It took me a second to process that. As I was trying to connect the dots he said, they are doing CPR on him now. Then it clicked. My baby is gone and the team is working hard to bring him back. He said he would go in and come back with an update. When he came back, he said they had his heart beating and had him intubated. They were going to take him to CT to scan his stomach area and then to MICU (Medical Intensive Care Unit). We were escorted to the waiting area. When the medical personnel came to speak to us she said his colon had a tear in it and he would need emergency surgery that evening. 

Surgery was done in 2 stages evidently. They cleaned out all the fecal matter from the stomach cavity. They found the tear and repaired it. But they left the small intestine and the large intestine apart from each other. They did not reconnect them. Because they had to do another surgery to connect them back together, they left him open and covered with sterile packing. On Tuesday, they tried again to complete the surgery but his vitals started dropping and they stopped the surgery. The surgeon said they would try again Friday. Meanwhile, he has not awaken. 

They moved the surgery up to Thursday and took him back around 12:30pm. By 2:11pm they sent a message that the procedure was completed and he would be back in MICU shortly. When he came back, there was no ostomy bag. His incision had staples and stitches, covered with a steri-strip. He had been put back together in the normal way. I was thankful for that. After about 3 hours post-op he was again helping the intubation machine breathe. Next test will be the MRI tonight or tomorrow to test brain activity/function.

Sitting waiting for the team to come and give me the news I probably already know is hard. But I am praying for patience and a calm heart to make whatever decision are needed to carry out his wishes.

The team said what I knew but did not want to say. The time he was without oxygen to his brain cause irreparable brain damage in several areas. We will disconnect the ventilator Sunday. And then the plan for the funeral begins. I never imagined I would have to do this. I thought we would continue to grow old together. But now I am alone with all the memories we shared. While it saddens me to no end, I know that death does not end it all. I also believe that if I live my life right, I will see him again.

Sitting here on this Saturday in MICU. Tomorrow we will disconnecting him from the ventilator. While I know it honors his wishes, the hole in my heart is growing bigger by the second.