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