May 20, 2016
I dropped Em off at school and headed for the train. Den was already dressed and eating his breakfast when I arrived. He had 5 sessions today…4 PT and 1 OT. The therapists were nice enough to schedule most of his sessions for after I would leave, so we could have some time together.
Dr. Rydberg came in to let us know that the educations session with Colleen was on for Tuesday and if all went well Den would be discharged on Friday! That is almost a week sooner than expected! Den had been working very hard and it showed!
Den’s sister and her granddaughter came by to visit and Den was happy to see some new faces! He had really missed the family and this was a very welcome surprise.
Ed, the social worker, stopped in again to let us know that Den’s discharge date had been officially moved to May 27th! All of us were so happy that we almost cried right there!
May 21, 2016
Den had his usual 4 sessions today….3 PT and 1 OT. Not much else happened today, except that Den had a small scare when his controller started to alarm. It turned out that his PI (pulsitility index) was dropping below 2.0. The nurse notified the LVAD team immediately. The team suggested that Den was most likely a little dehydrated. Den was given lots of fluids and everything returned to normal. So no major problem.
May 22, 2016
Today is Sunday, so Den has no scheduled sessions. Em and I went to visit as had become our custom. The doctors let us know that they were holding Den’s lasix today to make sure he didn’t have any more PI drops. They would most likely restart the med tomorrow. Den did 6 laps of the floor and I walked with him. The nurses are fun and keep asking Den if they had seen him somewhere before. It is nice to be able to laugh with Den about these small things. Em and I ate lunch and dinner with Den and I reminded him that I would be there early on Tuesday for our education session. Just before we left Den got very negative…he was lamenting that he would never be able to swim again. I didn’t have any kind of response to this so I tried to get him to focus on the positives. His weight today is 227.
Den's LVAD 