What goes down...

So yesterday was a down day. Dad was not doing well. The ICU doctor was looking very downcast. But the VAD coordinator was still optimistic. I asked her if the problem might be that after a diminished blood flow, the post-VAD rush of blood might have shocked his organ. Not the quanity of blood, she replied, but the way the blood comes. The heart pulsates blood through the body with little rests between each beat. On the other hand the VAD is a continuous flow device, this means there is no pulsating (and interestingly enough, dad no longer has a pulse). This flow, she continued, especially with someone who was pretty sick to begin with like dad, often results in some bumps at the beginning of recovery. So we have some hope today, whereas yesterday things looked very grim. Magic Mountain has nothing on the roller coaster we are on. My brother has returned home, after his incident yesterday and the demands of his life, he felt he needed to go back. I miss him, but we all need to make these kinds of decisions. I will have to make the same decision myself, probably tomorrow evening. If dad continues to make some progress I will probably go back as well. As I mentioned yesterday we will all plan to return when they take the RVAD out, but the timing is uncertain as to that.