July 13, 2016
Today Den surprised us all when he walked well the entire day with out any aids. No walker, no cane…no nothing! He wasn’t Speedy Gonzales, but he did it on his own! We are all very excited for Den to get his first cataract surgery. Den has done all of the required pre-op testing and filled out all of the paperwork. We even talked directly to the anesthesia person to make sure that there was no misunderstanding about Den’s LVAD. So tomorrow we head out to get his eye fixed and hopefully get him back in the driver’s seat soon.
July 14, 2016
Den is supposed to report to the surgi-center by 10AM this morning. So we are up and ready early. At 9AM, the phone rang. It was the hospital calling to cancel Den’s procedure. The machine that is needed for the cataract surgery is down for repairs. The next available appointment is not until the end of September! Well, we decided to change our tack…..I put a call into the LVAD team for a referral to the eye clinic at UofC. We are done playing around and Den is getting depressed and loosing hope to get his sight back.
July 15, 2016
Elaine, the PT therapist, was in today. (She has been coming to the house 3 times a week since Den got home from RIC.) She had Den do his usual exercises. She told us that she feels that Den is ready for outpatient PT after next week! She is amazed that he is walking with out any aids today. And Den is very proud of himself to show her how well he is doing. Elaine told us that Den’s stamina and balance have greatly improved in just the last few days (since she saw him last).
July, 17, 2016
Today is Sunday. For the first time in a while, we all went to Mass as a family (my parents included). We all went out to breakfast afterward. It was a really nice time for us all. My dad made dinner and we went across the yard to their house to eat. Den did use the walker to go over, just for the extra stability on the uneven ground.
Den's LVAD 