Back in the hospital

3/14/16

Well we kept him out of the hospital for 7  months, which is almost a record.  Most of these LVAD patients are readmitted about once a month.

Yesterday John started complaining about pain around his drive line sight.  That is where the line comes out of his belly so it can be hooked up to a power source, either batteries during the day or house power at night.  He said it felt like someone was pinching and pulling at the drive line.  He never complains of pain, so when he did, I knew it was something that needed to be checked

We called this morning and were told to come in to the clinic at 2:30.  They looked at the sight and said that it might be a drive line infection.  They took a sample of the fluid and then sent us to the ER about 4:00 to start the work ups.  He had a lot of blood taken and a chest x-ray taken around 6:30.

They are short of rooms in the Cardiac Unit, so will be taking him to Cardiac ICU (CICU) soon.  He has ordered dinner as of 8:30 to be delivered to CICU.  They said he'll be there before his dinner is delivered.  We'll see.

If it is a drive line infection, he will be permanently raised to the top level, 1A.  We know of two other 1A's that are living in the hospital, also waiting for a large O heart. Might be a silver lining.

That's it for now, I'll post more tomorrow.

Colleen