VIDEO | Walking 100 feet. Come on Josh you GOT THIS!

Wednesday night, day 32. More of the same. The game continues. I don’t even know what to say anymore. I try to think of positive things but it gets harder and harder. We have so much to be thankful for and at the same time we realize we have so far to go. I am at home tonight and Tami was supposed to be going to the room at the house she has been staying at. I guess after I left Josh got real quiet and started shutting down. He finally broke down in frustration and kept saying he just wants to go home. I’m afraid the walls of the room are closing in on him. They have me. His mother went and picked up a few things from her room close by. She has returned to keep him company tonight. I had to come home to be with the dogs. I am hoping to be able to start working some again. I am going in for a few hours tomorrow. I don’t know if I am doing the right thing. I know I need to. I can’t help but feel like I’m abandoning him and his mom. Hopefully this insurance stuff can get worked out sooner than later and we can get him home. We are so lucky to just have these problems to deal with and not a lot worse. We will keep moving forward and take this one day at a time. Please keep Josh in your prayers and I will do the same.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Wednesday morning, day 32. I was holding off on the update this morning. I was hoping for some good news. Most of the docs have finished there rounds and we don’t know any more than we did. The meeting with the insurance yesterday did not bring an immediate ok on the rehab. They are now in the appeal process. They again tell us that this is not uncommon. We will continue to try to be patient. Josh is in good spirits and was happy to see us walk in this morning. He did all right last night. We can still see him getting better. His muscles are week but his attitude is strong.
Come on Josh, you got this.

Tuesday night, day 31. It’s been a good day for Josh. It’s been a wasted day of recovery. No move to rehab as of now. The insurance and his medical team are not seeing eye to eye on what his real needs are at this time. Or better put, “what’s the cheapest way to get him home”? We lost an entire day of rehab waiting on insurance approval that may or may not come. (Very frustrating.) The hospital is doing all they can to get it worked out. I was hoping to at least here something today. The hours passed by and no information came. I guess tomorrow is a new day. We will try again. I already have a heated 3 car garage renovation in mind. It will make a nice single story temporary apartment. ( Joking ) We will do what it takes though. Keep Josh in your prayers tonight. He is at the hospital for the night by himself. It will be the first time in 31 days. I’m not sure if it was harder on him or his mom. He was being strong when we left but I could feel some anxiety there. I know he is 21 but he has been through a lot in the last month. I pray that he gets a good night rest. He knows his mom and dad are only a few miles away and will be there in minutes if he needs us. He does have another favorite nurse on this floor and luckily she has him tonight. She won’t cut him any slack but will keep a close eye on him for us. Come on Josh, you got this.

Monday noon, day 30. Quick update. Josh is done with dialysis accept for if needed. His numbers are looking good and he is making clean urine. ( Another answered prayer ) I keep getting asked about the samples pulled from his spine.

The results after 3 days are that there was nothing unexpected that grew from the samples. That’s good news. We will continue with the antibiotics and let them do there job. Josh has had a few elevated temps in the evenings but we have not reached the fever stage in 4 days.

We are definitely seeing the light at the end of this tunnel. He will keep moving forward. They say baseball is played 90 feet at a time. Football is a game of inches, and marathons are ran in miles/k’s.

How ever you measure it, Josh’s got this.

Monday AM, week 3. Josh found the true meaning of No Pain No Gain last night. After the great news of his first pee the night kind of went South on us. Even earlier in the evening he was complaining that he wanted dialysis because of the swelling.

Well, around midnight he started hurting bad in his left knee and leg again. He thought the bandages were cutting his circulation off. ( They were loose ) It was actually his skin getting tight from major swelling. The nurse called a rapid response to get a team up here to assess the situation. They did a stat ultrasound to check the knee and thigh. They are worried about something called compartment syndrome. The fluid inside the muscle builds up inside the sheath that surrounds the muscle. It can cause sheath to rupture because it does not expand well.

The Ultrasound showed negative for compartment syndrome but the pain kept getting worse. He begged for dialysis every minutes to relieve the pressure. He refused pain meds due to what might have caused the delirium on Friday.

This was a very long night with no sleep again. He ended up also having another EKG because his breathing was getting short and painful. It came back normal. ( Thank you Lord ) early this morning the swelling had started coming down and it was decided that all of Josh’s work to stand and exercise yesterday was a bit too much for the weakened leg. He upset the leg and it let him know it. So once again we are working with the double-edged sword.

They believe the pain and the loss of feeling in his feet from the major swelling was causing him a lot of anxiety and it affected his heart rate and breathing. We are setting here this morning patiently awaiting his trip to dialysis and he literally just fell asleep while complaining that they are not here yet. 

Come on Josh, You got this.  

A series of posts will follow regarding the current health status of Josh Petty, 21, of West Bend who entered a Milwaukee hospital two weeks ago with flu-like symptoms.

Below is an update from his parents.  For more details click HERE.

Friday afternoon, week 2. Josh is sleeping. They came in a little after noon and made him do his PT. They basically had to do it for him and hold him in positions. He was less than cooperative. He does not act like the Josh that we know. The doctor’s tell me they believe it is just this delirium. It is very hard to watch. He said things and does things that would make a sailor blush. I have to apologise a lot for him. He really is not himself. Anyway. He ate half a toasted cheese sandwich and drank a Gatorade. He is sleeping good at this time and we are waiting for another 3 hours of Dialysis.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Friday, late morning. Week 2. We now have a new issue. Josh has ICU delirium. The lack of sleep and messed up night and day schedule has got him very confused. He is having trouble answering anything and just kind of stares through you when you talk to him. All his labs and vitals look good. We need prayers for Josh’s mental state and kidney production. The lack of kidney production can cause toxin build up in the body. We are waiting on another round of dialysis today.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Friday morning, week 2. Today’s goal is to get Josh out of ICU. They think he is ready. I am not so sure. He seems to have taken a step back this morning with his emotional state. He is very quiet and will hardly respond to anything. Still would not sleep again. He will not talk. Not sure what happened last night but this is exactly why someone should have been here. My hope is that he is just upset and will come around. His numbers are all looking good. He is going to try to eat a little breakfast.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Wednesday night. Week 2. Josh’s C-diff test came back negative. ( thank you Lord ) we did not need that at this time. He just went for a 3 part CT. Chest, stomach, and legs. They are looking for anything to explain the elevated temps. We may not know results until morning. He is resting good this evening. Hopefully he will sleep. He has not slept all day and looks like he really needs some rest. It was great to have the air tube removed today. He has been able to communicate better. He is still quiet and acts like he is processing the past week. He asks a lot of questions when he sees a group of hospital staff together. He has had his phone some today and is starting to put together the amount of people and prayers that have been pulling for him. I think he is in a little shock by it. He still has not said much about it. I can see his wheels turning. We are taking it slow and letting the game come to him at this point. He has never backed down to a challenge and won’t start now.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Wednesday afternoon week 2. Josh is still doing well. He has spiked a 102.5 fever and we are seeing some concern. They are testing him for C-diff. I guess this is not unusual for people that get large doses of antibiotics. We now have to ware gowns as well as masks to see him only a precaution right now. The problem is that Josh is so awake and alert now that everything concerns him he is worrying about everything and it is causing him get worked up. Hopefully the results can come back soon and be negative. Please continue to pray and ask for kidney production and infection control. These are our two big hurdles right now.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Feb. 21, 2018 – West Bend, WI – Josh Petty of West Bend is entering week two of being in the hospital following flu-like symptoms. A recent post by his father Dwayne is below.

Monday night update. Week 2. The echo results came back the same. The size has not changed. They say it can take some time. We were setting with Josh and I had to let him know that he needed to let his girlfriend go home early tonight to get some sleep. He shook his head like to say ok. A little later he was acting upset or bothered. We started the Josh is trying to tell us something game. He was drawing a circle in the air and pointing towards his left wrist. “Watch” I said, “you want a watch”. He shook his head no. ( You idiot ) I could read the look on his face. Finally, I said “you want to know what time it is”? He nodded in relief. His mom told him it was 6:30 at night. He was looking worried again I had a feeling I knew why. “You don’t want to be here all night alone do you”, I said. He looked down at his feet and shook his head no. I rubbed his forehead and told him I will be here all night with him. I would hate to know what is running through his tired little head after this week. Whatever it is, I won’t let it bother him tonight. He has enough stuff to worry about. Josh can remember almost everything from the last week as far as I can tell. I really wish that was not the case. We are still making progress and starting to see a path out of the forest. We have a long walk to get him home.
Come on Josh, You got this.

Feb. 17, 2018 – West Bend, WI – Since the original post two days ago about Josh Petty of West Bend and his battle with flu-like symptoms at Froedtert Medical College of Wisconsin  in Milwaukee, there’s been requests for an update.

Below is the latest on Josh’s condition from his dad Dwayne. Links will follow to get you directly to the family’s page.

LAST UPDATE FROM DWAYNE PETTY  Feb. 17, 2018 at 6:22 p.m.

Come on Josh, YOU GOT THIS. Well my earlier post was a little premature. The heart infection is an extremely serious issue. We are now in the bottom of the Ninth deep in the count. I am setting in Josh’s room with his Grandpa. We are only telling him that his heart is sick and we are going to fix it in the morning. I have explained that he is deep in the count and he needs to just keep swinging.

Step up and protect the plate. He is ready to do the work and like always he is up to the task. We are going to ware this infection out like we have so many pitchers in the past. We are going keep making it throw pitches and foul them off until it makes a mistake. When we get the pitch we like we will take him deep until they have to pull him out of the game.

I have no doubt he is up to the task. This boy can be “clutch” when it counts. I’ve seen it many times.

The procedure is relatively simple they tell me. ( YA ) We just go in and remove the infected valve. ( Tri-cuspid ) the infection is hopefully out. All the risk is post surgery complications from his weekend state. There are two many to talk about. They keep telling me his age and ability to come back from what should have already killed him twice makes them believe we have a chance.

( That honest doctor’s words ) people ask me how I’m writing this stuff. Well, staring at a wall or TV screen and not seeing anything is not going to make it go away.

If I am being real about it and thinking about my son, than it helps make it a little easier. There is nothing easy about it. My eyes are two dry desserts because at this moment there is no more fluid to flow. It can show up at any time. Surgery is around 7:30 tomorrow (Sunday). We won’t know anything until after noon.

He is being moved to the cardiac ICU any time. Much larger room and state of the art. His surgeon came to this hospital from the Mayo clinic and we are told he is tops in his field. He made a good first impression. Please, please, please pray for my son and this family because we need him back.

Come on Josh, You got this. One last thing Josh. If we can’t take him deep. You can always hit a dribbler and run it out. Get on first and then steel your ass home like I have seen you do a million times. Your choice. #YOUGOTTHIS

Click HERE for direct updates.

Posted on February 15, 2018

UPDATE from Josh‘s sister, Ashlee.

Well guys, in all honesty I’ve been reluctant to give a update because I wanted to make sure I had something positive to throw in there as well. And, for a while there we really didn’t have anything to cling to again. We started the day off waiting for Josh to wake up. He had been off of sedation meds since last night. He started waking up this morning. We went through a 30 minute period of enduring a extremely ticked off Josh. He wanted the tube out and he made it very clear that he didn’t want to wait on anyone to remove it. At that time he was responding to most commands but he also still seemed rather disoriented.

He was squeezing my hand like crazy during this time. When the Dr asked him to move his feet it did take him a couple times but we were clearly able to see both feet move once. The tube was then removed shortly after this. The tube was out for a short period of time before we found out Josh was pulling in CO2 as well as oxygen. During this time the CAT scan taken earlier was also pulled up and it became clear that there was more fluid in his lungs (pneumonia) than what there was the previous day.

So, all in all he was very quickly re intubated. During all this he was not given any additional sedation meds. The Dr ordered that Josh be hooked up to a EEG machine to monitor his brain activity because Josh is not responding to commands. And he is not sedated in any way at this time. I have seen him grimace and clench his eyes shut as the nurse does things that he isn’t crazy about.

But at this time he isn’t opening his eyes or squeezing our hands when we need him to. I’m not sure how to ask for any more out of you guys than what we already have, but we need the prayers continued. We need our prayer warriors at the front line ready for battle!! We couldn’t have made it this far without you guys! You keep us going! You are giving us the fight that we need! We will never give up! We are here and ready to fight whatever is sent our way! ??????

Click HERE for more of the story from his family and during this Lenten season if we could take a moment and offer a prayer for Josh.