December 31

 Well we are just leaving the hospital. It has been a bit of a discouraging day. They had a hard time stabilizing George's oxygenation. The xrays still show alot of infection in both lungs, not a whole lot of improvement since he was brought in a week ago. We are doing our best to remain optimistic.
Proverbs 3:5 & 6  Trust in the Lord with all thine heart and lean not on thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him and He shall direct thy paths.

This morning we went to St Boniface and were able to see George in his new surroundings and were also able to meet his new doctor. The preliminary test he took for the H1N1 while at Concordia came back A-positive. They are still waiting for a couple more tests results to come back, but the doctor is 85% sure that he has the H1N1 virus. They have actually been treating him for this since Tuesday so there will really not be much change in care. He is in an enclosed room and they continue to require us to wear a gown, mask, & gloves. They have been turning George on his stomach for a few hours at a time to allow air to get to the back of the lungs which has been positive so far. There is damage to the kidneys which they hope will correct themselves as he improves. So for now his condition is stable but they are continuing to monitor him very closely.
We have been blessed with many visitors, phone calls and text messages and are very thankful for each one. God remains faithful even during this difficult time! Thanks for your continued prayers, love, and support!

Because of some setbacks with George's oxygen level, he is being transferred to St. Boniface this evening where they are better equipped to deal with his situation. Please keep praying!

We thought it would be a good idea to start this blog to keep family and friends informed of George`s progress through this time of sickness. We have been blessed and overwhelmed by all the love and support we have received!

We don`t know exactly when this journey started, but it came to light the week of December 16th when George was experiencing flu symptoms. Monday night he commented that he thought he was coming down with something and was very tired. He went to work Tuesday and came home not feeling well at all. Wednesday morning he thought he felt better and went into work for a couple of hours. He came home and crawled into bed. Thursday morning was no better so he willingly agreed to go to the walk-in clinic. There he was told that it was an influenza virus and there was nothing they could give him for it. Friday and Saturday he got progressively worse and Saturday afternoon we headed to ER at Boundary Trails. After a long wait we were told he had pneumonia and were given some antibiotics. He was also told at that time that if the pneumonia was viral that the meds would not help him any. But we went home quite happy to have received some meds and now he would be on the mend. That night he got progressively weaker and his breathing had become very labored. So early Sunday morning we headed back to ER. They immediately put him in a bed and started the iv going as he was very dehydrated by then. I headed home around 10pm and fully anticipated coming back the next morning to a husband on the mend. That was not the case...I could hear his labored breathing in the hospital hallway before I even got to the room. Around 8am the nurse came in to check his vitals and his oxygen level was down to 41. The room quickly filled with doctors and nurses and 

everything from there is kind of a blur, but I do remember the doctor coming to tell George that his body was not responding to the medication, that his lungs were giving up and that his body was going into septic shock. This led them to the decision to put him on a ventilator and to put him to sleep so that his lungs didn't have to do any work. Shortly after 1:00 pm he was transferred to ICU in the Concordia Hospital in Winnipeg where there would be more staffing to give him the care he needed. There they had a very hard time stabilizing him with his heart rate up to 171 and his blood pressure much lower than normal. They decided to paralyze him in order to completely relax his body. From there on in, there have been ups and downs. He has had heart, kidney, lung, & bowel issues. When one gets corrected, something else is affected. The doctor says he is still very critically ill, but is very hopeful he will make a complete recovery. There's a rocky road ahead of us, and we are to expect many ups and downs along the way. He has been encouraging us to keep praying. He will do all he can, but ultimately God is in control. He also let us know that it would be at least another week before they will let George wake up, providing everything goes smoothly. He has encouraged us to spend a bit more time at home to get some extra rest since there's nothing we can do for him at this point. This is a difficult thing to do because our hearts are there with him.We are planning on having our family Christmas tonight without him which is hard but we know that is what he would want us to do. We have been very blessed by the care he has received thus far. We want to thank you again for all your prayers, love, and support and we would continue to covet your prayers and support. We will try to keep you updated the best that we can through this blog.