I Heart Hearts

Mom and I decided to take a walk down to the gift shop today. They sell organs there, stuffed ones! If only it were that easy to just walk into a store a buy the organ you needed. Maybe someday medical myth will one day become reality. The gift shop had many interesting things to entertain the mind. They had Ninjabread Men!  Who knew they even existed!

Doctors came in today to discuss the occlusions. They are leaning toward not fixing them. They explained in by telling us that most arteries are pliable, like a garden hose. Dad's is as pliable as a lead pipe due to the calcification and the stent within the stent. They do not want to risk having an arterial bleed during the LVAD surgery. Everything else looks just right and they do not want to chance it. They did say if they got in and it looked like an easier fix than they thought they may go ahead and do it but they feel that even if it was 100% occluded that, that artery is not going to play a role in helping his heart. This particular artery is feeding the part of his heart that has already succumb to the disease and is no longer viable. So all in all I think they will avoid the bypass which means no leg pain in addition to everything else Dad will have to heal from. 

Tracy came to visit tonight and Mom and I decided to ride home with her to get some sleep at home tonight. It's been a bunch of restless nights in a row. We thought maybe one good night sleep would be good. We are scheduled for LVAD class tomorrow and I know I would not be able to stay awake for a class if I didn't sleep at all the night before.  So we are home for a few hours and then back again in the morning.  

Dad still continues to baffle them in how good he is doing. They just are amazed that someone with his heart function does as well as he does. We walked the hallways today twice for a half hour each time. The only reason he stopped was because lunch came! 

Tomorrow brings the final eco cardiogram before surgery. Hopefully this week will go by fast and we can move onto recovery faster! Thanks again everyone for all the well wishes, prayers, calls, e-mails, blog comments and visits. We really appreciate it.

I bid you adieu with a wave from the Queen :)

Just Another Unsunny Day in Boston M A

Room With a View

 This is the view from the room. Not a bad view. In the background you can see the Northeastern University Scoreboard. We can see them playing soccer. Last night the poor kids had to row off the field it was so wet! It has been cloudy or raining since our arrival but it makes being here easier because you do not miss being able to go outside. 

 

 

 

 

M I C K E Y M O U S E

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mom and I took a walk to Walgreens and Stop and Shop today to stretch and walk around. It wasn't bad and we picked up a few room decorations for Dad :) We talked to Kerry, Lilly and Kylie Via Facetime tonight on the iPad. Technology sure has changed the way we communicate. It's so nice to be able to see them and see what they are up to. They have little colds so they are unable to visit, but at least they can see and talk to Dad this way.

The Doctors came in earlier and said that Dad is scheduled for surgery Wednesday at 7 a.m. so this is our official time unless there is some type of an emergency between now and then. The team doctors that came in this morning were great. They explained that the two occlusions that he has may be addressed Wednesday as well. If they have to do bypass on top of the LVAD they will take a vein from his leg and use that to bypass the two occlusions. If not that is a bridge we may have to deal with later. We are hoping it can all be done at the same time and we can avoid another surgery later.

 Right now Dad is able to get out of bed, walk the hall in the cardiac unit and eat dinner with us sitting on the couch in the room. So we are just waiting basically for the weekend to end, Monday brings the eco cardiogram and our LVAD classes. Tuesday is alot of waiting and Joe will be driving here Tuesday night. 

Dad is in good spirits as always and is def. a favorite patient here. He keeps them all laughing as always.

We continue to appreciate all of your thoughts, prayers and well wishes.

More tomorrow

Laurie

You can now leave Dad a message

Had a few people ask why comments could not be posted to this blog. I think I have fixed the issue. Feel free to leave Dad a message here. Firefox browser seems to work best. You have to click on the word 1comment: or how ever many number comments there are, which brings up a box you can type in. choose who you are anonymous or actual google name then publish.

54 and Moving Forward

Gabby had lunch with Dad today before we got to the Hospital. So he was in good company for  lunch. :) Mom and I were here for a few hours and they came and took him down to have the heart caths done. Gabby came back and visited with us while he was downstairs and then was able to stay for a while after to hang out. With everything she has going on with her program she always makes time to come and visit, she is amazing!

Luckily they were able to do both sides of the heart through caths in his wrist. This alleviated the need to do a neck cath or groin cath both of which are much more unplesant. They did find two blockages though. The doctor came up a few minutes ago and explained that he has a 90% and 80% occlusion in two of his old heart stents. Instead of doing anything today they are just going to wait and do everything on Wednesday. They will bypass these old stents so they will no longer be an issue and they feel like it will be ok to wait until Wednesday.

Monday he will have an eco cardiogram which is non invasive which is good. Monday we will all be attending classes on how to operate the LVAD, Dad included! The good news is that the cath results came back with his right side pressure as normal. His left side pressure (54) is elevated but that is the part the LVAD will operate so with luck he will be feeling a lot better after this is in and operating. The way it was explained to us is that a normal person has pressures at 20. Someone in Congestive heart failure they accept 30's and 40's but anything over that is not a good level. He was at 90% in May! They could not believe he was even functioning with a pressure that high. So in the grand scheme of things 54 is damn good!

He looks good, his voice is going because he has a cold and a cough but lungs are clear and he is overall doing well.

As always thanks for all of your well wishes, visits, kind words, love and support.

Laurie

Life is not a matter of holding good cards, but sometimes, playing a poor hand well

The title of this entry came from a jar I have on my desk. Every time someone in the office gets a fortune cookie they donate their fortune to the jar. From time to time we pull them out and read them for fun.  The one I pulled today appropriately sums up Dad's journey pretty well. I have to say he never complains. With everything he has been through, he just rolls with the punches and gets back in the ring. He is currently at Brigham and Women's hospital in Boston awaiting a few surgeries. The first is two heart caths that will take place tomorrow ( Friday ) and the large surgery for the LVAD ( Left Ventricular Assist Device ) is scheduled for Wednesday. For those of you not familiar with an LVAD,  assuming that is the vast majority of you because we were unaware of what it was until this  past year; the LVAD is an internal heart pump. In simple terms, it pumps the left side of your heart for you so your heart function improves. The pump is run by an external drive line which is attached to a controller and a set of batteries that are carried around with him wherever he goes. He can also be connected to a wall outlet unit so he is able to charge the batteries at night. There are many testimonials from people who say if they knew how good they could feel after this procedure they would have done it a long time ago. He is so used to feeling bad that he doesn't realize it. It has been a gradual decline so with each stage he has had a period of time to get used to it. This is why he never realizes he is in heart failure. His heart has been tired for a while so this is the second major step in the bridge to heart transplant. The first was the Milronone 24/7 IV pump. He will be stopping the Milronone because they feel it may have caused the heart episode on Sunday. They cannot be 100% sure that it was the Milronone, but, it has been known to cause them and they do not want to take any chances.
So he will be at Brigham and Women's for a while. The nurses and doctors there are amazing and we are really lucky because my cousin Gabby is a Pharmacy intern there! She is so sweet she visits everyday and says Uncle Mike keeps everyone laughing. It's so nice to know he is in good hands there.  I will do my best to keep up with the blog. Please pass along this blog address to anyone you know who may not have the address. Thank you to all our family and friends who have always been our source of strength, your support helps more than you will ever know!

I will leave you with a few pictures from Sundays apple picking festivities: