The iv fluid filled his lungs and he went back on life support and was sedated again. At 9:00 am New Years Eve a doctor came in and told me that Mark may not make it through the day and to be prepared. I called my family who all drove to Cleveland to say their goodbyes. By midnight Mark woke up and wanted a New Year’s Eve hat and wanted to be a part of the nurses party. Mark couldn't quite understand why everyone was there to see him, he asked if they were there to say goodbye, I replied, no. they are here to just see you. I've only just told him they were there to say goodbye. Now we waited. We didn’t know if they were going to stick this thing called an lvad in him or a new heart or just keep him comfortable until he passed away. He was on life support but wide awake. They couldn’t give him sedation medicine because it would lower his blood pressure so he would write on a note pad.
For days he wrote, and wrote and wrote. He would play hangman with our son while on a ventilator. They would watch Ellen together everyday. The nurse would crack up because my husband wanted to watch Ellen daily. We didn’t have insurance and I was scared they wouldn’t do anything for my husband. I just wanted them to do something for him while he was somewhat stable. Finally the surgeon came in and told us he would be doing the Lvad surgery. He also said that he set up payment arrangements with the hospital for $20.00 a month and that if we couldn’t pay it that he would.
The surgeon never once told me the risk of the surgery and the only thing he told me was that he was going to take good care of my husband. Two days later on January 9th 2013 they implanted the Lvad in my husband. Two days later
he was finally off the ventilator for good. He was awake! Life from that point changed for us. The Lvad is a left ventricle assisted device. My husband no longer has a pulse. A motor was planted into his chest. A tube is inserted into the bottom of his heart and a tube is inserted to by pass the hearts pumping chamber.
He has to be plugged into to a wall outlet because the motor is run on Electricity. When he is away from home he is connected to two batteries that runs the motor. Electric is the most important thing in our lives. A cord comes out of his stomach and is connected to a computer that he wears around his waist to run the motor. A few weeks after this surgery he had another one to place a defibulator in him. My husband was scared to have the ventilator removed and scared to leave the icu and finally after being in the hospital almost two months in icu he was released on his birthday January 28th 2013. It wasn’t easy because we were still not able to go home. We had to stay in a hotel across the street from the hospital. It was more for our benefit so that we become custom to all the equipment and sterile dressing changes. We drive four hours every few weeks to see his Lvad team. Its a lot of work packing up all of his equipment for any trip. Every where we go we have to make sure the outlets are 3 prong ground. We have a lot of medical equipment. The maker of the LVAD trained our local fire department and ems before we came home. He can no longer have cpr because it would break up the pipes and motor of the lvad
husband was scared to have the ventilator removed and scared to leave the icu and finally after being in the hospital almost two months in icu he was released on his birthday January 28th 2013. It wasn’t easy because we were still not able to go home. We had to stay in a hotel across the street from the hospital. It was more for our benefit so that we become custom to all the equipment and sterile dressing changes. We drive four hours every few weeks to see his Lvad team. Its a lot of work packing up all of his equipment for any trip. We have a lot of medical equipment. The maker of the LVAD trained our local fire department and ems before we came home. He can no longer have cpr because it would break up the tubes and motor of the lvad. Cont.
Mark
Mark, Tracey, and Joshua