#davisstrong
Wednesday's Beneficiary . January 29, 2020
#DavisStrong
Journal entry by Ann Elmer for Stephanie Davis— January 4, 2020
Darin started not feeling well later in the afternoon of December 30th. By 3am, he was in extreme pain and woke me up to say he thought he was having a heart attack. One very long visit to the RMH ER and all tests, scans, bloodwork, etc etc all came back as normal. They prescribed a couple of nausea/antacid type of drugs and said to follow up with a GI doctor right away.
By the next morning, he was confused and unsteady, so I called 911. He was admitted to RMH, but they were still working diligently to figure out what was going on. Many tests later, it was determined that bacteria (staphylococcus aureus) had gotten into his bloodstream and it attacked his heart. He was then transferred over to the new Mercy Health facility in Rockford. It was determined that this bacteria has destroyed his aortic valve and it needed to be replaced.
In the meantime, he had several mini strokes that were causing the confusion and muscle weakness. Unfortunately, one of those strokes let loose Wednesday morning and became a massive brain bleed (about the size of a tennis ball). He was transferred on January 3 to Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee to their cardiovascular ICU.
On January 4, he was still intubated and heavily sedated, but opened his eyes to my voice, squeezed my hand, and nodded his head when I told him that I loved him and was here. He currently does not have use of the right side of his body and cannot take food or liquid orally (even if/when the breathing tube is removed). His speech had improved drastically yesterday so I am hoping that will remain going forward. Darin is the strongest man I have ever met in my life and I have faith that he is going to make it through this. Please pray for him.
Love,
Stephanie
January 27, 2020
Journal entry by Stephanie Davis . . .
Still had his feeding tube in this morning, so that was a good start . . . but he was really short of breath and was wheezing. Respiratory therapy gave him a breathing treatment, but that didn't seem to do much. The doctors started him back on Lasix to draw the excess fluid off of his chest and ease the pressure in his lungs. They also ordered a cpap machine for him at night because of his sleep apnea.
After reviewing the CT scan and physically examining Darin, the neuro team decided he was suitable to start the anticoagulant (blood thinner) IV--it runs very slowly, but continuously. They will do another CT of the brain tomorrow to make sure it hasn't triggered the brain bleed to start actively bleeding again. If this goes as planned, the heart surgery should be sometime in the near future.
Speech therapy ordered him lunch, consisting of diced green beans, diced mandarin oranges, and what was supposed to be chopped up noodles with sauce (they pureed it). He tried really hard to eat, and did well with the few bites he chewed and swallowed, but he was just so exhausted from that small amount of activity that he couldn't continue. They are going to try again tomorrow and hopefully he will be cleared to eat more 'regular' food. They also plan to do another video swallow study soon to see if he can handle thinner liquids, instead of having to have everything thickened. OT worked with him as well, helping him to sit on the edge of the bed and balance himself, lean to one side, etc. which also wore him out.
Because he gets so hot on a regular basis, he has now developed a heat rash all down the back of him. The nurse had him surrounded by ice packs and gave him an anti-anxiety to help him rest at night (they've been giving that all along, but just recently increased the dose). Fingers crossed that this poor guy is actually able to rest tonight. As always, thanks for all of the prayers--I know I feel them, and I'm sure D does as well❤
Updates on Coach Davis
Read all about his story on his Caring Bridge page here. He’s got the fight of a Bulldog in him but he--and his family--need prayers and support from the rest of his DAWG family now. Once a Bulldog, Always a Bulldog!
WEDNESDAY
- ATTIRE FOR THE DAY: YOUR INSPIRING LEADER/HERO
- Donation for Darin Davis . $3 HS Campus/$1 St. Joe's Campus
EVENTS OF THE DAY:
7-8th Girls Basketball at South Beloit . 5:30pm
State Send-Off for Kamdyn Raymond at HS Campus
VERSE OF THE DAY:
- Do nothing from selfish ambition or empty conceit, but with humility of heart regard one another as more important than yourself. --Philippians 2:3