LVAD coming

6.14.15

Last Thursday John and I, along with Jen and Mick had our LVAD 101 class, it was very informative.  They will be my backup caregivers in case I get sick. 

There are two LVADs that are available at the University of Washington Medical Center.  The HeartMate II requires opening his chest, like it was in 1996 when he had his Mitral Valve replaced.  The Heart Ware can be implanted going through his side.  When he gets his heart transplant, they will need to go through his chest.  Every time it is opened it creates scar tissue, which makes it more difficult for the surgeon.  We have a say in which device we want, but will probably defer to the surgeon.

The LVAD team will also train the local fire department EMTs.  Since the LVAD is a continuous flow device he will not have a pulse like normal.  His blood pressure will be a Doppler pressure, which is a single number.

For the past six plus years, John has been a level 2 on the Heart Transplant List.  He has been able to do pretty well on his own and at home.  He is now able to do less and less.  We can see it and the test at the Medical Center confirm it.  After the LVAD is implanted, he will be a level 1B, a much better chance of getting a new heart.  The patients that must live in the hospital and are the sickest are 1A.

When we realized that this was really going to happen, we decided to go to Alaska one more time, so we have that booked for next month.   Mick and Georgette are going to come along for their first cruise.  It should be fun.  We have been there four other times and I have never been able to convince John to go fly fishing up there.  This time we have booked an excursion out of Juneau.  John will fly on a sea plane to a river, fish for three hours, then fly back to the ship.  I'm looking forward to seeing photos.

Next week we will be scheduling additional tests as well as scheduling the surgery.  Lots more to learn.  We will post blog entries as we learn more.

Colleen and John