July 2, 2016
Den woke up this morning with some back pain. I gave him some Tylenol. It seemed to help for a while, but the pain returned before he could have another dose. So we tried the heating pad. Between the two, heat and Tylenol, his pain seemed well controlled. We started thinking it might just be a pulled muscle.
July 3, 2016
During the day, Den told me that the pain in his back was getting more intense. By the late evening, the Tylenol and heat were no longer giving him any relief. We tried to go to bed, hoping that some rest would help.
July 4, 2016
At 2AM, Den woke me up and said that he could not take the pain any more. I called the LVAD on-call to let them know that we were heading in to the ER (but not for anything related to the LVAD).
I woke up Em to let her know that we were going to the ER. I told her that Grandma and Grandpa were just across the yard if she needed anything. I also left her a note, in case she didn’t remember our conversation. I called my parents to let them know that Em was still in bed and that I would call with any updates and when we were headed home.
When we arrived, they immediately send Den for an EKG. When that was done, we were taken to a curtain area and Den put on a gown. The ER nurse took blood and urine samples and sent them off to the lab. They gave Den something for the pain (it worked immediately). The doctor ordered a CT but there was a 4-6 hour wait. A little while later the doctor came back to let us know that the Den had a urinary tract infection. He had already put a prescription order in the discharge orders for us. After 7 hours of being there and no way of knowing how much longer we would have to wait for the CT, Den decided to sign himself out. (The CT was never done.) We went home and tried to get some sleep. I would go and get the antibiotic from the pharmacy when I got up.
July 5, 2016
Den told me that the Tylenol does nothing for the back pain he is still having. I gave him a midol (for cramps). He told me that after about 30 minutes he had relief from the worst of the pain. I told him to keep working on stretching his back to keep the pain to a minimum. (After a few days, the pain was gone completely.)
Den's LVAD 