Discussion Forum - Northstar Chevelle Club

John D · 2K+ Club

Update on Larry

OscarZ · Treasurer

Thanks for sharing John.

Lost in the 60s · President

New update on Larry; not sure which daughter wrote this on caringbridge.

It’s hard to believe that it has been 6 months since Dad’s transplant. I was both excited and a little nervous to take him to his 6 month checkup. Excited because it has been 6 months; nervous because I was sure there was going to be a reason they wouldn’t let him leave that day – you know how his luck seems to go medically.

Fortunately it all went well and they let him leave at the end of the day. Before we escaped we stopped on the floor to visit the staff that spent so much time caring for him. They were pretty excited to see us; even more excited once they knew we had brought cookies for the break room. Many hugs and comments about how good Dad looks.

We still have good news and bad news. The CMV medication was causing problems so they had to stop it earlier than they had planned. Dad isn’t showing signs of the that coming back. One of his IV antibiotics is affecting his kidneys and that also needed to be stopped for now. He continues on a second antibiotic.

We finally have a plan for surgery. They’ve decided to do the laser surgery with a scope, but do it in the operating room with a surgical team on standby. If there are any problems with the laser they will be ready to crack his chest to fix it. Hopefully this will clear up his infection for good.

When Dad first started having clots in his LVAD he was the only person known to have that problem. Since then there are more people who have been experiencing the same problems. Those people are now guests of the hospital until they are transplanted. We’re lucky that Dad got to go home between clots, if only for a few days at a time. While we don’t wish this on anyone, it is somewhat comforting to know Dad is no longer medically unique in this way.

My favorite part of these updates is reflecting on the good things the LVAD and transplant has brought for us. We’re thrilled that Dad has been able to stay out of the hospital. He says he feels better than he has in 20 years! He has energy to ~~fiddle~~ do important things in the garage. He has re-joined the “Fuddy Duddies” club that walks the mall. He drives himself to all his appointments and regularly attends the support group at the hospital. He spends time with his friends doing retired-guy stuff.

Dad jokes that he graduated from Cardiac Rehab at the top ofhis class. We tease back that since he was the *only* one to graduate that week the he is also at the bottom of the class. For his next challenge Dad has joined Lifetime Fitness. They have a great rate for seniors. Watch for him pumping iron every week and doing wind sprints on their track.

A little story to wrap this up -- During spring break my teenage daughter asked if Grandpa would go with her to the Mall of America for the afternoon. He was saved when she got invited to a sleep over with a friend. Lucky break. She settled for out to lunch instead. In his fortune cookie that day was the message “Anything is possible with a willing heart.”

66 RAT · Vice President

Thanks for link, John and thanks for posting the update, Mitch.

dashboard · 2K+ Club

Great news and so nice of the family to keep folks in the loop. Anyone up for wind sprints with Larry?

Lost in the 60s · President

Just got this on the bat channel. HOPEFULLY, Larry can start to improve permanently now !!!

The laser worked!

4 minutes ago

It was quite a long day today. A report time at the hospital of 5:30 a.m. and a couple hours delay before they could get started.

We learned a little more about the leftover wire today. Some pacemaker wires hold 20 lbs, but this one only held 5 lbs. That means that they can only use 5 lbs of pressure to remove the wire - any harder and it will snap. Other transplant recipients told Dad that they still have some of their wires left behind also, but theirs aren't causing any problems.

We got an update from the operating room that the team had finished prepping Dad and that they were still making the decision which procedure to use. They told us to expect that the next update would be to let us know which procedure they were doing.

The waiting room policy is that if the OR doesn't call with an update every 2 hours that the waiting room staff call for an update. About 2.5 hours later we had no call and asked the staff to get us an update. They let us know that we could expect a call back from the OR shortly. What we got instead was the surgeon into the waiting room. They were done!

The surgeon said that the wire was in some tricky spots. They had to go slowly and carefully, but they got it all out. It did break in some spots along the way and there was some slight bleeding in one of the arteries that needed to be observed longer.

But the wire is out! And using the laser without having to crack his chest again. Dad asked the nurses to be sure to let him know which procedure they did as soon as he woke up. They assured him that he would be able to tell on his own.

On our way out of the hospital Amy & I stopped to visit one of our LVAD friends who was "in for the duration" that I wrote about last time. He got his new heart over the weekend! Amy & I both immediately said how great he looks - we're afraid so many people have said it that it could be going to his head already. We're so excited for him!

Glad to have been able to write a report that was entirely full of GOOD news!

Lost in the 60s · President

Doesn't sound like Larry is rebounding as quickly this time. I'm including the link to Caringbridge. Jump on and leave him a note of encouragement...

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/larrylucast

14 hours ago

Just a quick note to let everyone know how Larry's doing today. He's been feeling pretty awful, he's been nauseous and not able to keep anything down. He's also running a fever so we'll have to wait while they figure that out. They are keeping a close eye on fluid around his heart also. Hopefully this will all pass quickly and he can get into his own room and out of ICU. We will keep you informed and let you know when he's allowed visitors. Thank you for all your kind words of support.