January 18, 2017
Den had his now usual blood draw early this morning. The good news is that his INR is down to 2.8. That is a considerable drop from the 3.4 that he was at yesterday. Den also got his Rocephin IV.
The days begin early in the hospital and today is no exception. Holly, from the LVAD Team, was in to let us know that the Team had ordered the heart cath for today or tomorrow. The PICC line order had been put in and should be done tomorrow. The best news she had for us….Den could be discharged on Friday if everything went according to plan and no more issues were found. (Den and I were both happy to hear that he would be going home soon.) Becki, also from the LVAD Team, came in just a few minutes later to download Den’s LVAD log. She told us that she would call me soon to schedule Den’s 12 month check up for the Momentum 3 Study.
After lunch, Dr. Cozar stopped by to let us know that the only hold up for Den’s discharge could be getting insurance approval for the IV drug therapy. He said that the coordinator was working on it already and that we would be updated with information as it was available. As he was leaving, the tech came in to to the ultrasound on Den’s kidneys. The doctors wanted to make sure that there were no abnormalities or problems that could have caused the infection.
When the nurse brought in Den’s next round of Rocephin, we asked about the heart cath. She said she would check and let us know. When she came back with Den’s evening meds, she told us that it was not scheduled yet, but she would let us know when the order came through.
Just after I ordered our dinners, Den didn’t feel well…all of a sudden. I called for the nurse when he started to shiver all over and complained that he was VERY cold. While I was waiting for the nurse to get to us, I put every blanket that I could find on Den hoping that it would help him feel warmer. He did seem warm to the touch, but not hot. In about 5 minutes, it seemed that we had the entire hospital in the room! I think we had 2 nurses and 3-4 doctors all trying to figure out what was going on. They gave Den some Tylenol and sent blood and urine cultures to the lab. We were all hoping that Den was not going backward in the fight of this infection, but it needed to be checked. After a few more minutes, Den started complaining of weakness all over his body. He said that his arms and legs felt very heavy and his head felt like a brick…too heavy to lift. He also had a sudden headache. All of this was very concerning for all of us in the room. The doctors ordered a head CT to check for any looming problems and said that we would need to keep a close eye on Den overnight and wait for the cultures to come back from the lab.
Den at very little that night, just some broth from his soup. I tried to get him to eat more, but he was so out of it that I didn’t push the issue.
Den's LVAD 