Finally.............feeling better

yes, I finally feel better.  I had been feeling a bit run down since I returned from California early last week.  I didn't have my second wind exercising and I was sleeping like I needed to hibernate.  On Monday afternoon I had a migraine headache for the first time ever in my life.  It was quite frightening when my colleague asked me, "hey are you OK??  you aren't making sense."  I shut it down for the day took a 4 hour nap.  I NEVER take a nap.  A risk with the LVAD is stroke so when you get an acute headache that shows up so fast you mind starts to wander.  It took a couple of days after that but I finally have a good appetite back and my energy.  I have worked out five days in a row for the first time since my surgery last year which is great.  So yeah, finally.

I became friends with another patient last year when I was hospitalized named Dave.  He has his LVAD placed about two weeks after mine.  He just got his new heart last Saturday the 18th.  I saw him in the hospital on Monday and spent some time with his family.  He looked great for being only two days since his surgery.  Well I went with the family yesterday to the hospital and spent about 90 minutes with him.  He looked amazing and the change since early in the week was palpable.  He had so much energy and had good color and just looked healthy.  I don't know how to describe it other than to say if you have spent any time in a cardiac ICU the patients don't generally look great.  Dave looked awesome.  I have attached a couple of pictures of he and I.  For me it is so good to see beyond the surgery and see the other side.  A happy and relieved family, his great kids, and somebody who looked like his life was starting again.  It validates for me all the research I have done into what this next step represents and what I can look forward to.  

Here are a couple of pictures

Please consider helping

My employer is pushing us HARD to make donations and volunteer time to worthy causes. To me, and I hope many of you all, nothing is more important that curing heart disease. So my charities/organizations I am supporting are the American Heart Association, UNOS, and Caringbridge. Please check out my page: Pete Q Dell volunteering and donation page

I am asking for you to check the page out and offer any thoughts of advice or encouragement you may have. If you can, a donation would be great as well. It shocks me that so little noise is made for heart awareness in the month of February:-(

OMG, the LVAD shut off

Heidi and I woke up yesterday to a frightening discovery.  The display unit for my LVAD had shut off. My first thought was OMG, my LVAD stopped AND I slept through the alarm.  I immediately did a self-test on my device and looked at the power unit to make sure it was still on.  We unplugged the display chord and plugged it back in and it came back on which was a relief.  It reminds me the first time I had a battery alarm I started shaking and couldn't remember what to do.  It sounds like no big deal as I write this but I can assure you yesterday morning it was no laughing matter.  Have to take my display unit into the hospital this morning for them to swap out.

Organ Donation Article

Read this last night, courtesy of my Google Search.  Pretty interesting.  Article discusses how other countries, in particular Israel, deal with the religious and ethical dilemmas around organ donation.

Who deserves a heart transplant

Two articles in one day:-)

Wow.  Another very exciting article just came in.  Check it out:-)

Wireless LVAD????

Happy National Organ Donor Day

I tricked you all:-)  I just saw on another Hearty Blog that highlighted that not only is today Valentines Day, it is also National Organ Donor Day.  The statistics are staggering:

• 113,000 people waiting for an organ
• Each day an average of 79 people receive the gift of Organ Donation
• 18 people die each day waiting for a donation
• 1 Donor can save up to 8 lives

I received an email from my sister this morning that a co-worker of hers received the call from her father, needing a heart, at 2:40 AM EST that a heart had come available and that he would go into surgery at 8:00 AM EST.  No word yet on his status!

National Organ Donation Link

Thoratec Visit

I am on my plane returning from San Fransisco.  I arrived on Monday night and left today, Friday the 10th.  Spent 3 days in San Jose, one day in Pleasanton and 1 day in Fairfield and my uncle's house.  The highlight of the trip was definitely time with my family.  However I want to share about my time in Pleasanton.  I went to Thoratec's headquarters.  Thoratec makes my Heartmate 2 LVAD.  I had the VIP welcome, lunch with about 20 people and a factory tour.  What an amazing experience.  After the shock of having 20 people watch your every move as you eat, say your hellos, etc. we had lunch and got down to business.  I think there was representation from marketing, sales, advertising, manufacturing, clinical development, R&D and maybe patient outreach.  If I missed someone I am sorry.  I got to share my story and get asked questions about my experience.  Then I was able to walk through the factory and actually touch a real pump, see it assembled and see the amazing production process.  For those that have this device, take my word for it, this production is absolutely state of the art.  I asked a lot of questions from a patient, care-giver, recipient, and a business perspective.  The thing that struck me was the palpable admiration of the employees in seeing a patient, the caring way they asked their questions, asked about my kids and family, how I am feeling, my input on "living" with the device.  Just awesome.

I arrived at 12 PM and left at 4 PM and drove north.  Then I had cheated and had a glass of great wine and a big steak.  Doesn't get much better than that!