Now came the waiting and wondering and praying as Dad continued to hold on to life.
The next few days were hard. Dad's kidneys were still not working as well as they needed to, but once the doctor switched his medication several days later, they improved. The doctors were able to cut back on the antibiotics, which was another good sign. Unfortunately, Dad still had fluid on his lungs, which was not good at all.
For every bit of good news, there seemed to be bad news attached. Worst of all was the isolation.
Not being allowed in the hospital meant that Mom was by herself for two weeks, just waiting for the hospital to call. During those lonely days, she had many phone calls from friends and relatives checking in to see how Dad was. Unfortunately, the opposite was true about calls from the hospital. With the nurses not used to having to call families, instead of being able to see the families when they visited, there was no system in place. And as the hospital grew more crowded as COVID cases increased, the nurses had even less time to call. Usually, after Mom called for information, she was told the nurse was unavailable and she had to wait and wait and wait for a return call. Often the news was just, "He's holding his own." Or "His blood pressure is... and the ventilator setting is..." While we certainly understood how hard it was for the medical personnel who were putting their lives on the line to care for Dad and others like him, we felt frustrated and hopeless because there was no system for connecting us to Dad. This was so early in the COVID fight, that nothing had been implemented. Hopefully, that's changed for other families.
Even worse, we knew all of the stories about people in comas who heard their loved ones talking to them, even when they were seemingly unconscious. Dad had been in an induced coma ever since he was put on the ventilator, and there was no way for us to let him know that we loved him and were fighting for him.
And there were lots of people fighting for Dad! By Wednesday, April 8, I had 18 people who I was e-mailing daily so that they could pray for Dad. That day God gave me two verses that I'd written down when I was in college. I found them in an old box I was sorting through, and I knew that God was giving them to me.
"Stand still and see the salvation of the LORD" Exodus 14:13
"Though it tarry, wait for it." Hosea 2:3
Those two verses were a lifeline and God knew how much I was going to need them.
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