Trial Run

Dad continues to become more alert. But today is a big day. Today they will try to take the RVAD out (the official term is explant -- the opposite of implant). They say that this is in some ways just a trial. They are going to try to take it out. If he does well it stays out. If he has trouble, they put it back in and let it cook a while longer. At this point, however, they believe the right side of the heart has a good chance of being able to hold up on its own. They apparently played some with the pressures reducing the amount of pumping that the right VAD was doing, and the heart was able to pick up the slack. This gives them some confidence that it will be able to do things on its own. The RVAD is a BTR (Bridge to Recovery) meaning it can't stay in forever so now they feel like they have had sufficient time for it to do its thing. I think with dad's increasing alertness they feel like the big concern, that he was gone for good, has passed and they want get the RVAD out so he can start physical therapy with LVAD (which is portable -- the RVAD is not). He's been laying in a hospital bed for almost a month now which is not good for any one.

The operation started today at 7am (PST), they told me to call about 9am and get an update. I will update the blog as I hear things