Kyphoplasty….

April, 5, 2017

I called Wound Care Resources, the company that provides the sterile dressing kits, to restart sending us kits today. I told them 2 months ago to stop sending kits for a while; we had a stockpile since Den had been in the hospital so much. They said that they would send out a box of supplies today and we should have receive it in a few days.

I have to tell you that the staff in the call center is wonderful. We had a mix up in the shipping address when they started sending us supplies. When it happened the next month (after I had called to let them know when we received the shipment), the rep said that she was going to walk over to shipping and have our address corrected in their system, since it was correct in hers. They are always pleasant and happy to hear from us.

We headed for U of C for lunch and then Den’s appointment with Dr. Lee. Dr. Lee went over all of Den’s x-rays and CT scans with us. He wants to do a Kyphoplasty procedure. This is where they insert a needle in to the broken vertebra. Through the needle they insert a balloon, blow it up to restore the shape of the vertebra and finally inject a cement into the space to keep the bone in the original shape. He said that the procedure usually takes about an hour and could be done on a Tuesday or Thursday. He said that he would talk to the LVAD Team about how low he could take Den’s INR safely and coordinate care with them. He told us that after the procedure, Den should be pain free. He could have some muscle pain, but the compression fracture would be fixed and the pain from it would be gone. He then turned us over to Katie, his assistant. She said that she would try to schedule us for the 18th or sooner if a slot opened up.

We left the appointment with renewed hope for a pain free day in the future for Den.

April 6, 2017

I called Debbie, the EP nurse, to let her know what Dr. Lee was suggesting. She said that it was not a problem to have the procedure before Den’s pacemaker change. She said that it would benefit Den by making him more comfortable for the pacemaker surgery. She said that she would check with Dr. Nayak to make sure it was OK with him.