COVID-19, CUPPY AND STEw, MY BROTHER & Me

       A lot has happened since March 31st, when I began this blog.  My brother was returned to a ventilator within 24 hours of being taken off it.   His blood oxygen was dropping, not precipitously, but enough for concern.  As far as anyone can tell--he hasn't been re-tested--he's (mostly) over COVID-19.  He hasn't run a fever in many days.   But perhaps because there's mucous lodged in his chest, which seems to be a common problem, he wasn't quite making it without the ventilator, so the doctors at Cornell/Weill decided to reinsert the ventilator, so as not to strain his heart and lungs.   
        I didn't want to post about this because so many of you had seemed so buoyed by my brother's good news, and we have all been struggling to feel  good about something in this dark time.  However, it seems there are quite a few patients at Cornell/Weill in my brother's situation: "over" Covid, but not able to get off the ventilator.  After pondering what to do for a couple of days--these patients are at least stable in a very chaotic medical world--my brother's doctors came up with a new protocol.  They performed a tracheostomy, and the ventilator is now working using that small hole rather than a breathing tube.   Doctors believe there are several advantages of this new protocol.  Reducing the throat swelling which results from being intubated for an extended time.  Being able to reduce the patient's sedation level so that he may begin physical therapy to avoid muscular atrophy.  And finally, and this is the good news, as an insurance policy.  They do hope and plan to get him off the ventilator in the near future.  If there's a problem, however, and he needs to go back on a ventilator, he could do so without needing to be intubated again, which, apparently, is quite grueling.
        So there it is.  I'd hoped to have better news to report when I first posted about this on March 31st, but we are all living in the land of the real right now, rather than in the land of Make Believe, except maybe in the White House.
          In CUPPY AND STEW news, since I invited my Facebook friends to visit and Like the new EricGoodmanAuthor  page, the page has received 148 Likes and now has 148 followers.  Thank you all.  And it seems that someone has purchased a copy from Small Press Distribution, which means there has now been one copy sold on-line!    Here at Chez Goodman/Morgan, we're hoping there will be more copies sold soon.
             Stay well, and be kind to your loved ones, and even people you don't like very much.   I'll be back soon and will introduce a new thread.  Many of you may be surprised to learn that I am the part owner of a small business in San Diego: Sky Salon.   As a result I know a great deal about the plight of small business people right now, and the joys and challenges of applying for new government loan programs designed to keep people working, one slow and annoying form at a time.