Tyler's Heart

Pictures - Pictures from Houston.
LVAD Video - A YouTube video about living with an LVAD.
HeartMate II Video Clip - Short video clip about the pump Tyler has.

Another good blog to read is from our friend Bill. Cozumel Part 1 - This Might Be Habit Forming.

Monday, June 28, 2010

LVAD Social

Today we went to Univ. of Colorado Hospital's first LVAD Social.  I'm not sure if this was the official name of the event (okay, it was Mechanical Circulatory Support Meeting or something like that, but I'm calling it a social).   It was very good to meet the other LVAD people in the Colorado area.   In fact, we met one woman who had just gotten back from St. Luke's where she had Dr. Kar as her doctor and Peggy as her VAD coordinator.  And she went through the same floors as we did.   Made me miss the St. Luke's staff (and gave me some very weird flash backs).   She told us that we were mentioned to her while she was there.

The group was a mix of ages and most have the LVAD as a destination therapy (not going to be put on a transplant list).   In fact the woman we met won't be available to be on the list for 5 years as she had just finished chemo the week before her heart event.   Kind of made me re-evaluate our bad luck...... maybe it wasn't as bad as it could get!    Everyone was very nice, talkative, and very upbeat.    Some had just gotten the LVAD while others have had there LVAD for years.    

We also went to clinic today and things still look pretty good.  Tyler's INR ratio dipped slightly, but not enough to change anything.  We were able to have a good "heart to heart" (pun intended) with Dr. Brieke about life with an LVAD vs. a heart transplant.   It has been good to have the time to weigh the risks and benefits of both so that we are ready for the next step when it happens.

We are taking a trip to Indiana on July 8th so Tyler can visit friends and family.   We are going to drive instead of flying so we can avoid the airport security headaches with all the equipment we'll be taking.  This also gives us the opportunity to take the dogs (Toby and Bowser) with us on the trip.    Should be interesting!

Robert

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