Road to Recovery

So many times this week I have thought about posting an update, but time just slips by. Dad is doing better and better each day. He gets frustrated that he isn't up and moving around more, but we just remind him that not only is he recovering from a heart transplant, but two solid months of being in a hospital bed. Time is all he needs. Before he knows it he will be running around with the grandkids and giving Mimi a run for her money.

On Monday this week Mom stayed with Dad and took him for his blood work. All the results looked good. Tuesday and Wednesday Kelly stayed home with him and he spent time resting and trying to regain some strength. Yesterday and today were my days with Dad. I must say, I really loved spending the last two days with Mom and Dad. I had a wonderful time caring for Dad and visiting with the both of them in the evening.

Thursday is the hardest day of the week for Dad. Between the blood work, the heart biopsy and the doctor visit, he is worn out by the end of the day. I have to admit, I was pretty worn out myself! Anyway, this go around his echo looked good and he got another good score on his heart biopsy (1). All good news. The doctors seemed very pleased with his progress. The only issue that came up at this visit was a virus that appears to be activating in Dad. It is called CMV. They are putting him on a 6 month treatment for this and will evaluate him each week as needed. Apparently this virus is fairly common for transplant recipients.

In other good news, after Thursday they took him off two of his medications, bringing his grand total down to 15 medications he takes one to three times daily. Mimi is doing a great job of keeping his pharmacy in order.

The doctors also took time to admire their handy work on Dad. They made mention of how good his incision looks. It really does look good. It is not at all what I imagined it would look like after a heart transplant.

Today Dad and I spent a quiet day at home, recovering from yesterday's hospital visit. He really is looking terrific 3 weeks out from his transplant. Keep up the good work Dad!

Weekend Recap

This last weekend was Dad's first weekend out of the hospital. I am happy to report that there is not much to report. It was a quiet weekend at home for him and Mom. They continued to catch up on rest and try and build back up Dad's strength. He is taking it one day at a time and feels better every day.

Friday (4/16) Update

Yesterday Mike had his weekly check-up at the doctor. However, it isn't' really just a check-up, but rather an all day affair. He got there at 6:30 a.m. for blood work, then went to the the cath lab for a heart biopsy, then went to see the doctor. He left at 5:30 a.m. yesterday morning and didn't get home until 3:30 p.m. That is a long day for a healthy person, let alone someone that got a new heart two weeks ago. He scored a 1 on his biopsy (which is good) and everything else looked great. Dad is well on the road to recovery.

April is Donate Life Month

April is National Donate Life Month. Ironically, Dad got his heart in April. National Donate Life Month was established in 2003. Every day in April, people across the U.S. make a special effort to celebrate the tremendous generosity of those who have saved lives by becoming organ, tissue, marrow, and blood donors and to encourage more Americans to follow their fine example.

More than 98,000 people are in need of an organ for transplant. Each day, about 77 people get the organ transplant that gives them a second chance, but 17 to 19 others die because they did not receive an organ transplant. Save a life and become a donor today!

http://organdonor.gov/get_involved/donatelifemonth.htm

Home Is Where the Heart Is

Today Dad spent his first full day at home. 63 days after being admitted to the hospital, he is home safe and sound with a brand new heart. God has truly blessed him and this family. Today, thankfully, was uneventful. Mom and Dad spent most of their day side by side in their recliners, listening to music and catching up on some much needed rest. Slowly, life will begin to return to normal. However, make no mistake, this adventure has changed all of our lives forever. We won't waste any time living life to the fullest and making plans that we never thought would be possible. Life is good.

Almost Home

Sorry for taking so long to post an update. It has been a very busy few days. I have lots to report! I will start with the thing that everyone is most interested in and that is how Mike is doing.

Transplant Update

The end of last week was full of some uncertainties. Dad was having some type of reaction where his face would turn red and he would get very hot. We never really figured out what was causing it, although Dad's best guess is anxiety. That issue has resolved itself and hasn't happened since Thursday.

On Thursday Dad had a biopsy of his heart. This is done to check for rejection. You get a score from 0 to 3. O means no activity is detected and 3 is fairly serious rejection. A 2 or a 3 will automatically mean a 1 week week stay in the hospital to treat the rejection. Dad will get a biopsy at decreasing frequencies throughout this first year. After the first year the biopsies are done. This go around he scored a 1. We were told that this is a good score and in some ways is more desirable than a 0. It means that his body has the ability to fight some infection but is not attacking the heart. This test result was very good news.

Mike was also experiencing a low hemoglobin count. On Wednesday it was 7.4. The doctors debated on how to treat this but in the end decided to give him a transfusion. He got the transfusion later on Thursday and by Friday his counts were already up.

Finally, the issue that seems to have extended his hospital stay a few days was his very low blood pressure. On Thursday it was, at times, undetectable. Readings like 75/45 were pretty regular. The doctors really wanted to monitor this and did adjust some of his medications to help bring it up. As of yesterday his blood pressure had gone up significantly and as of right now, this issue has also resolved itself.

High blood sugar is a natural side affect of a transplant. It takes the pancreas some time to adjust to all of the medications you have to take after a transplant. Dad was on an insulin drip and then was down to a few insulin shots throughout the day. The doctors feel confident that Dad will not develop diabetes as a result of his transplant. In fact, Dad is not even taking insulin shots with every meal and they are simply monitoring his blood sugar. More good news.

On the medical front, that is about all of the updates I have. As you can see, it is all good news. As of right now, Dad is scheduled to go home tomorrow.

Classes

On Friday Mom, Kelly, Janice and myself attended a training class with the transplant coordinator. It was to basically teach is how to care for Dad when he goes home. It was very interesting. We learned that Dad will have a fairly normal life after he has been home for 30 days. We all have to use common sense and a few extra precautions to be around him, but nothing unreasonable.

On Saturday Kelly and Mom attended a class on Dad's medications. Right now he takes about 22 pills a day, so it is a lot to keep up with. The good news is we have lots of charts and pictures to keep it all straight!

Cooking

Once again, Janice came to town to do some cooking for Dad. It is a good sign that he has his appetite back! Yesterday he got spaghetti and Mexican casserole with beans and rice. It was his first home cooked meal since he got his new heart.

House

When we all found out that Dad would be coming home Monday, everyone put it in high gear to get things ready for his home coming. Randy and Janice spent a lot of last week here so Randy could do work on the inside of the container. It looks fabulous. Steve and Danny helped out too. On Saturday the boys cleaned up all of their work stuff and then Marlene, Melissa and Monette moved in to begin the cleaning. They disinfected everything from the walls and ceiling to the bathroom, kitchen and windows. The place was sparkling when they left. It is now all cleaned up and ready for Dad to come home tomorrow.

Thank You

I know that was a lot of updates. A lot happened in the last 4 days. As you can see, none of this would have been possible without the awesome support of family and friends. The family has really pulled together to help cook, clean, work and care for Dad. This has been a life saver. Friends have supported us is so many tremendous ways. My City of Bryan work family and Mom and Kelly's Texas Children's' Hospital work family has been so understanding and has supported us in ways we couldn't have imagined. Everyone who has been a part of this experience has changed our lives forever. I speak for the entire Nall family when I say thank you, thank you, thank you.

Wedensday (4/7) Update

These last 48 hours have been crazy. Yesterday Dad got his drain tubes removed and the picc line in his neck taken out. It was a long and exhausting day for him. After a long wait he was finally moved out of ICU and on to the transplant floor. Last night I went to Houston and stayed with Dad for his first night on his own. Mom, Kelly, Janice and I have been taking turns sitting with him day and night. After almost 50 days of being monitored non-stop and hooked up to all kinds alarms, it was somewhat hard for Dad to get used to being without all of that. It may sound weird, but those alarms and 24 hour surveillance in the ICU provide a certain level of comfort that disappears when you move into a room with no monitors or alarms. It will take Mike some time to learn to trust his new heart and the job it is doing. Until then, some anxiety about what is going on is to be expected.

Today was a rough day. Early in the morning Dad became very weak and his blood pressure dropped extremely low. Also, his hemoglobin level was low. They made some adjustments to his meds and scheduled a heart biopsy for tomorrow to check for rejection. Later in the morning Dad had some type of reaction to something (still yet to be determined). All of the issues of the morning initiated a call that brought about 15 doctors to Dad's bedside. It was pretty impressive actually. Anyway, they continued to use medicine to treat the problems of the day and the reaction subsided and his blood pressure began to come up. Later on in the afternoon they did an echo of his heart. The results were good. It showed an ejection fraction of 70 (with his old heart is was less than 30) and confirmed that there was not any fluids around his heart. So, after an extremely long day for everyone, Dad is now resting. Mom will be staying with him tonight as he still needs lots of assistance. Tomorrow we hope for good results on his biopsy and the possibility of going home early next week.

Monday (4/5) Update

Today was a rough day for Dad. He is getting very little sleep and the deprivation is starting to take its toll. There are so many alarms and people and monitors that it makes it impossible to get some peace. After a heart transplant he obviously needs to have the 24 hour non-stop care that icu offers, but it sure would be nice if he could rest. We hope and pray that tomorrow might bring a private room on the transplant floor.

The good news of the day is that he had is intra aortic pump removed. He is doing very well without it. They also started him on some new steroids and that threw his blood sugar off again. They are working now to get that under control. Tomorrow will bring the removal of his drain tubes.

Some bumps in the road are to be expected during this experience. Dad still looks good and seems to be making good progress. We are tackeling one issue at a time and taking advantage of every moment we get to be with Dad to help him through this.

Hey Good Lookin

Can you believe this guy had a heart transplant on Friday? Doesn't he look great? Overall Dad is doing good. He is tired and gets very little sleep in his pod with five other neighbors. Hopefully tomorrow he will move out of the cardiovascual intensive care unit and go to the transplant floor into a private room.

Tomorrow he will get his balloon pumped removed. They kept it in to provide his new heart with some extra assistance. It seems Dad is doing ok without it so they are going to take it out. He will also get his drain tubes removed. By the end of the day he should be left with only iv's and a few heart monitors. They took the defibrillator and pace maker out during the transplant.

Post surgery Dad's blood sugar remained a bit too high. They put him on an insulin drip and that lowered it significantly. By the time I left today his insulin dose had been cut in half since Friday. HTat is good news. Over the next few days he will also begin the slow process of getting off the medications that help his heart muscles squeeze. It will be a week full of big changes for Mike.

Dad swears he will be out of the hospital by the end of this coming weekend. He has determination like I have never seen. He is ready to start living. Nothing is going to stand in his way.

A New Day

I have good news to report! Today has been a long but good day. Dad's surgery went excellent and was completed in 2.5 hours. That is really quick. The surgeon said he did fabulous and everything went as planned. He was back in ICU around noon. A few hours ago they removed the ventilator tube and started to wake him. Mike is being an excellent patient and is remaining calm. Over the last few hours he has become more alert and has even said a few words. He knows he has a new heart and that he did well during surgery. The next step is to move him to the transplant floor. That could happen tomorrow or in days from now. It just depends on how Dad continues to do.

Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers. We could truly feel them envelope us today as we waited for the news. I ask that you continue to pray for Dad's speedy recovery and that you continue to ask God to watch over the family that is grieving for the loss of their loved one. Yesterday that family made a very difficult decision. They chose to give several individuals a chance at a life. Maybe one day we will be able to look the family in the eye and let them know all that they have done for this family. We are blessed.

This is a picture I took as they wheeled Dad to the operating room. His walk to the operating room felt somewhat like a Mardi Gras parade (minus the beads and boobs). He has an entourage of people with him and his family waving and cheering him on, as well as many onlookers. It was a beautiful site.

You did good Dad. We are so proud of you.

Houston, We Have a Heart

Today is the day we have been waiting for. Today God has blessed Dad with an unbelievable gift. Today Mike will get a new heart.

We got the call around 12:30 a.m. Dad was emotional and excited. They brought him back to the operating room around 6:00 a.m. and the transplant is now underway. It should last around five hours.

Please pray for Dad and this family. Please pray for the doctors and nurses. Please pray for the family that lost a loved one yesterday.

It's the Little Things

Dad got an unexpected but very pleasant surprise this week. He got to take a shower! I am not sure what he did to sweet talk his surgeon into letting him take one, but I am certain it was the best shower of his life! It had been 41 days of make shift baths while hooked up to monitors. Apparently it is almost unheard of for someone on an intra aortic pump to get to do this. Mike is hooked to more than 20 leads, 3 monitors and his machine. His heart is monitored on three different floors and getting unhooked from everything (except his pump of course) is a major ordeal. Anyway, I am sure this won't happen again any time soon. None the less, he enjoyed it while it lasted. Now, you can thank me later, but I do not have any photos to document this occassion.