LVAD

I spent my birthday in the hospital (feb 26). Not the greatest place to have it. Julie brought me in some cake and the boys came in to visit me. We tried to plan for the kids to come see me when I was feeling good. The BIG surgery was the next day and I did not want to have the kids see me intubated and on a ventilator. I just did not think that was something they needed to see. I did not want Julie to see me in that state either because to me that would be torture to look at your loved one like that.


The device they placed in me is a LVAD, or left ventricular assist device. My particular one is the Heartmate II by Thoratec. The rep came in and showed me one a couple of days before the surgery. It looks like metal tube shaped like an E with the middle leg cut out. It attaches to the bottom of my left ventricle and again at my aorta. It bypasses the left side of my heart basically. There is a “waterwheel” in the middle that flows the blood through to compensate for my inefficient, big, floppy heart. It spins at about 10000 rpm. A power cord goes from the device, out of my stomach, to a “controller” or the brains of the thing. From the controller there are two cords that go to two batteries.

When the rep came in I had some of my friends from my previous job at Snohomish County Corrections there and the mood was light. Well the rep gave me this thing and I started trying to take it apart. When everything is out of your control it was nice to be able to see some of the process. Shauna the nurse was worried that I would break this thing that looked like it came from True Value Hardware Plumbing department but costs the same as a Mercedes. The rep assured us that this was the dummy prop and I would not hurt anything. I see Shauna weekly and to this day she still will not let me touch anything in the office.

I did not sleep much the night before surgery. Too much on my mind. The surgeon came in the evening before. I told him not to stay out too late that night and not too much coffee in the morning, unless that was his norm. Dr Mokadam is good guy. He is all surgeon but even has a good personality. That is a bonus in the surgeon department. I could care less if my surgeon has a great bedside manner. I want him to cut straight and not waiver.

I remember being wheeled down to the surgery room. Crunch time. I was scared out of my mind at that point. But then it was night, night.

Surgery was a long day for Julie. Lots of family and friends were there for support. Hours went by. I was wheeled back to the room after surgery and Julie had to wait for them to get me switched over before she could see me. Unfortunately they did not come to get her, and doctors and nurses rushed into the room. Then I was rolled back to surgery. I had started bleeding again. They took me down and opened me up and the Doc said that I was bleeding from everywhere. They called it a Heparin rebound. At that point they continued to give me blood to keep me stable. I guess all you can do is ride it out at that point and wait for it to stop. In my mind it would be like a whole surgery team literally sitting around waiting for paint to dry.

Fortunately I did stop and woke up about 12 hours after the start.