Intro

I'm starting this blog as a way of keeping track of what happens with my dad's implantation of an LVAD (description below). My hope is that one day soon my father will actually be able to read this blog and know what was happening as he peacefully slept. I should start with some preliminary information. A VAD is a Ventricular Assistance Device. An LVAD is one which is designed for the Left Ventricle which is (as you might expect) on the left side of the heart. Apparently in the majority of patience its the Left Ventricle which has problems, so that is why this is implanted. My dad has Congestive Heart Failure (CHF). CHF is a chronic and degenerative disease. People can live for years with it, but at some point the disease takes its toll. There are four stages of Congestive Heart Failure, the last stage is stage 4, end stage. This is where my father was two weeks ago. My father was admitted 4 weeks ago to a hospital near his home. He had had surgery and was concerned about his incisions healing. He walked into the hospital. He also was complaining about a lack of appetite. After about a week he was not recovering. The doctors however could not find anything additional wrong. His blood sugar was low, his blood pressure was low, but this was all corrected in a couple of days. Still his condition was not improving. He checked himself out and went home, but now he was extremely weak and unable to walk. He went home and had even more problems, increasing weakness and a number of other symptoms. He checked himself into a local heart hospital where they discovered that his heart was operating at about half the level it had been a week earlier. His Ejection Factor was down to 17% where it had been 35% a weak earlier. At this point he was diagnosed as having end-stage heart failure. He was in fact dying. At this point, his cardiologist recommended that he be transferred to a university hospital that specialized in VADs as his last option. He was moved to the hospital and he started discussing the implications of getting a VAD. I should end this post with some explanations. You may notice that I have specifically not used names. Neither my dad's, his doctors or even mine or my brothers. I do this for a couple of reasons. One I am creating this blog in the midst of the situation. I hope for a happy ending but I have no assurance. If my dad doesn't make it I don't want to besmirch the reputation of doctors who are trying their best. As you will see my dad's days were numbered in single digits without the procedure. If my father does not survive it will not be their fault but rather the end of a battle whose goal is to cheat death. We hope for the best, but we cannot but worry that we will end up with the worst.