LVAD

Do you know what an LVAD is? I don't even know if that is the right acronym. I also don't know exactly what it stands for. What it is is this. . .a machine that replaces the left side of your heart. Not helps your heart like a pacemaker--it replaces it. I mean, they cut a hole in your heart and connect it to this machine that is on the outside of your body. You can hear it pumping all the time. It runs on batteries and you have to change them. At night, you plug directly into the machine that charges the batteries and you run on electricity. Guess what happens if the power goes out? If you don't have a battery available, you use a hand pump. . .yep--you pump your own heart with a hand pump.

So, why do I know this (other than the fact that it was a subject on Grey's Anatomy) and why am I writing about it? Because my stepfather has one. He has been a heart patient for almost 15 years--maybe more than that. He had heart attacks, CHF, a defibrillator put IN his heart (yes--the thing that shocks you--inside his body) and now, the LVAD. It basically keeps you alive until you get a heart transplant. Some people have lived on the LVAD for 18 months waiting for their new heart.

Here are some of the things that go along with the LVAD.

1) The surgery itself is just horrendous. The transplant itself will be nothing compared to this. The recovery took about 3 months (longer?) and my mother thought she would completely lose her mind. I won't even go into the details of that, because I wasn't there and I couldn't possibly do justice to the awful things they both endured.

2) Right before he got the LVAD, G. was so sick he could barely walk from the living room to the bathroom. He had congestive heart failure and he was just shutting down. Now, on the LVAD he is doing SO much better. He's lost weight, he's working out, etc. So. . .life is better. What to wish for? Get a heart, well of course, but that is scary too. What if he is doing so well on the LVAD, and then rejects the heart? Would it be better to have stayed on the LVAD?

3) Life is in suspended animation right now. They can't go ANYWHERE because you don't know when the heart will come available. You have to be able to get to the hospital QUICK. So, it is like being on house arrest.

4) That #3 causes them (meaning my mom and G.) to feel isolated and left out. They want to come visit us, but they can't. They wanted to go to a family reunion, but can't. They want to make plans, but they can't. . . So they feel like everyone else's life is moving and theirs isn't.

5) The VERY VERY VERY worst thing. For him to get a heart, someone has to die. And--it likely will be someone who wasn't expecting it. If you are sick or whatever, you have been on medications and stuff like that so your heart isn't eligible to be transplanted. So, the hearts come from healthy, usually young people who die tragically. A horrible thing. So, it isn't like you can sit around and WISH for someone to die. Of course, we all wish for a heart, but it would sure be nice if they could grow one in a petri dish. You can rationalize that the person was going to die anyway, they volunteered to be a donor, so they WANT someone to have their organs etc. but still. . .someone has to die. Some family has to suffer. G. hasn't even gotten his heart yet, and already I am praying for the family of the donor. For peace, for comfort, for a sense that they did something to help someone else.

I know a lot of people don't want to be organ donors for a myriad of reasons. But, just to let you know, there is no truth to the rumor that "they will let you die if you are a donor so they can have your organs." If you physically die--meaning your heart stops beating--your organs are no good. They keep people on the life machines and they do lots and lots and lots of brain scans to be sure that their is NO brain function. So, if you can find it in your heart to do so--please choose to be an organ donor. Some states mark it on your drivers' license. There is a spot for it on our military IDs--most importantly, let your friends and family know. When you are brain dead, your body basically becomes the property of your next of kin, so they get to decide whether or not to donate your organs. My next door neighbor has a bumper sticker that I SO agree with "Don't take your organs to heaven. Heaven knows we need them here!"

OK--here's a weird thing. . .this morning I decided to write about this, but I didn't finish because I had to leave so I saved it as a draft to finish when I got home. On my way home, I got a message on my voicemail from my mom that said that G. went to transplant clinic today and they told him "You need to be sure you are ready." Whoa. . .