Hospital LIfe

Hospital Life

It was pretty shocking to find out that you need a new heart. All the plans that you make and all the things you prepare for do not include major organ failure.

I have to tell you that the doctors and nurses at the University of Washington are some of the best around. They are very good at what they do and are really compassionate. I had no idea what to think or do at the time but they put you on the right track. My wife Julie is amazing in that she meets problems head on and she has held everything together during this time.

Now that I was on the heart transplant list they had to do what seemed like a million tests. Everything has to be checked and accounted for when they go to match a person up with a donor heart. The staff was great and it was the first time I had ever been completely dependent on others. I was in bed, I had to lay basically flat because the balloon pump would not work right if I sat up or tried to get out of bed. I did not leave the room for a week. My vision was confined to what I could see in front of me in the room and a call light that also turned the channel on the TV. The next room may as well have been another continent. Very strange.

My family and friends were really good and came to see me a lot. Julie would come and see me and stay or go up and see the kids. My boys Garrett and Baylor are 9 and 7 and they have been great through this but I do believe it is because Julie has kept things as normal as possible for them. Her parents Mike and Marilyn stayed at the house and kept everything together at home. Brian Ash is a good friend who I went to medic school with me and he has been there almost every day since this has happened. He kept the department informed on my condition and arranged time for people to come and sit with me when I was stuck at home.
At the hospital you will find that you do not get a lot of sleep. They wake you up it seems like every time you start to get some real sleep. Plus you can keep your mind busy thinking of stuff during the day. At night it is hard to distract yourself and you find yourself feeling quite alone and scared about what has happened.

The nurses at UW seem to understand this and would talk to me and explain things and answer my constant questions. I felt like I was lucky to have some medical knowledge and had just finished medic training. I understood the physiology and the reasons for the medications they were giving me. I laugh because CHF was the favorite subject of Dr. Copass and we learned it well at Harborview. So I trained for 10 months at Harborview, I think I was a medic in the field for about 3 months, then I go into heart failure. Whooppss