Today began shortly after midnight when Nelson woke to visit the bathroom. His comments to Ann Sophie didn’t make sense, and though the apartment was very warm, he was shivering. He asked for one blanket and then two. When she felt him, he was burning up–never a good sign.

He was also struggling to breathe, even after the left lung had been drained yesterday afternoon. Ann Sophie said he was doing rapid panting in a strange way and was unsure of himself. 

Ann Sophie called 911, and within 5 minutes the EMTs were at the apartment door. Baby Will awoke with all the confusion, and in this panicky moment, Ann Sophie knew she couldn’t go with Nelson to the hospital. decided to call an ambulance. The EMTs took over with confidence, and tending to Nelson’s needs. His oxygen level was at 80 and heartbeat dangerously slow. He’d been using Luke’s oxygen at 3.0 with no help, so they put it at 5.0. Nelson willingly went with them.

At the ER, they worked to stabilize him but all the new developments were overwhelming him faster than they could counteract them. After several tests and more blood work, they suspected a blood clot in the lung.

Time went by and when they were unable to determine the main problem, they admitted him to the hospital–for the third time. His swelling, which seemed to be lessening just the day before, seemed much worse. It was in his face, arms, chest, back, legs, feet, all of it. He was still panting, quickly becoming unnerved and anxious by his effort to breathe.

Unwilling to give him anything to ease his stress because it would suppress his heart further, they did more tests. What they found was a full left lung, the one that had been drained just hours beforehand. They removed another two+ liters of fluid to relieve his breathing stress, but that didn’t seem to help. The cancer was producing fluid at a much faster rate than before, and in addition to the lung fluid had begun filling the area around his heart, a matter of grave concern.

His blood pressure was extremely low, and they couldn’t get it up. They began considering a risky surgery to drain fluid from around the heart.

By this time Ann Sophie, who had been up through most of the night, wanted desperately to be with her husband, but who would watch baby Will? I had gone back to Michigan to receive our British relatives, son Hans and his family of eight. They were coming to the USA for the first time in four years to join the rest of us on a family vacation. So there was no extra pair of hands to help in Minnesota.

That’s when the guy who has been our saving grace again and again in these last weeks suddenly appeared saying, “I’ll take care of the baby. You go see Nelson.”

Luke worked his magic once more, and he stayed throughout the day, working hard to win Will’s approval, which was no small struggle. As Ann Sophie sat next to Nelson in the ICU holding his hand, she sent back a message that there were15 people in his room at once, working to save his life. For us, that confirmed he was in the best place he could possibly be. 

Nelson’s blood pressure was dangerously low, breathing was still labored, and their next step would be to intubate him. We prayed against that, a prayer God chose to answer

Throughout this day there have been ups and downs. They thought it was a blood clot in the lungs but then disproved that. Then they made the decision to drain some of the fluid from around his heart. We were overjoyed when the report came
back that the procedure was successful and his labored breathing had finally eased. A shunt was left in, in case future draining is necessary.

We are well aware that Nelson could have died last night. Since he is still very much alive, we’re singing praises to the Lord, who chose once again to let him live.

„The Son gives life to whom he will…“ (John 5:21)