A routine.....seriously?????

"Efficiency is intelligent laziness".....my Mom!  I'm not sure if the quote actually originated from my Mother, but it is one she said often enough to us.  I am finding that to be true now, more than ever! Since Todd has been home from the hospital I have been struggling to find a routine that works best for us.  I mean, really, I never had to figure out when to squeeze a dressing change or log numbers from a Heartmate display module in my day, pre LVAD!! I find that if I don't stay on top of things or let them slack, then it all piles up at the end of the day or we are rushing around and the day is chaotic. I like things to run smoothly , hence, my ever tweaking routine!!!  Luckily, I am an early bird...I love to get up and have my quiet time with a cup of coffee before I get my day going.  Today that happens to be at the kitchen table where I can look out and enjoy the neighbor's Christmas lights!!  I get my shower and dressed before I wake Todd up at 7:30....I tried to be nice and let him sleep in longer but that just throws the day off , along with all his medications....that is where the tweaking comes in!!  We are part of a program called VAD Watch, It is a pilot program through U M to monitor his vital signs and device parameters through a website on a 24/7 basis.  We do it right at home and all the results are sent right to our VAD coordinators and to a registered nurse who calls us periodically to check on Todd and basically gives him support, answers questions, ect...That means, right when Todd wakes up he has to get his weight, BP, temp, all the numbers from his Heartmate display, and now his INR (his machine just came) and input the data  into a little monitor that goes directly to this program.  If we don't get it in by a certain time, they will call and check on us.  We have been trying to figure out when a good time to change his dressing would be...we tried first thing in the morning, but it seemed we had so many other things going that we moved it to night time, well, that was OK, but sometimes I would be pretty tired so we changed again to right after dinner and that is working out best right now, it only takes a few minutes but if we get it done then we have the rest of the evening to relax. Something usually comes along to throw things off but I TRY not to be too rigid about it!

I am thrilled that we don't have any appointments for another month , other than right here in town for PT ! Now I am off to get my day going!!
NOTE****  Morning did not run smoothly as planned...Todd got up at 6am...what the heck??  He never stays up at that time, he was just excited to use his new INR monitor....my quiet kitchen table time turned into loud hunting show background noise....my quick retreat into the other room was interrupted by a 6:45 AM phone call, who calls someone before 7 am....????  Oh well, I will try again tomorrow!!! Now I am REALLY off to start my day!!!

HOME SWEET HOME!!! :)

So glad to be home after another doctor visit down in Ann Arbor this morning.  Todd had an appointment with his Physical Rehabilitation doctor.  It wasn't at the hospital where all of our other visits have been , which also happens to be the ONLY place I know how to get to in Ann Arbor, so I was a wreck!!  The problem is is that I hate to drive more than anything!!  Todd has always driven everywhere, I am a horrible, nervous driver and am terrible at directions too!!  To top things off it was foggy this morning and pouring down rain on our way home, but we made it!!!  I don't know why I can't just be one of those relaxed drivers and enjoy it, but I'm not, maybe by the time we are through with all of these appointments I will be!! The one thing I am very thankful for is that it is only about a 40 minute drive, which I used to think was a long drive, now that I am hearing that people drive hours to get to their appointments I have no right to complain!!

I got home and made myself a nice, hot cup of coffee and Todd is napping. We are taking dinner out to my Mom, who is battling cancer.  She is 84 years old and she is a TROOPER...it is getting to the point where we have to help her out a little more and maybe even getting to the time where we have to have someone come in to help us out, but for now my sisters and I are taking turns and trying to come up with the best solution for her.

Our daughter, Ali, me and my Mom....see...doesn't she look great!!! Looking forward to making her dinner tonight and HAPPY that we don't have another appointment for about a month!!!

PHENOMENAL!!! I'll agree with that!!!

Today was our first trip back to UM to see the cardiologist...we both really like her alot.  I am happy to say that she thought Todd was doing "phenomenal"!!!  Everything looked real good.  They were all about his tactical shirt that he uses to hold his batteries!!  A lady in the waiting room had also came up to him wanting to know about it for her husband.

The doctor said in March they will start doing all the testing to get the ball rolling so he can be on the transplant list by May, can't wait for that!

The guy from the home monitoring program met us up there to give us our INR home machine and showed us how to use it...no more going to the lab...seems easy enough to use too!!

Link to tactical holster shirt!!!  http://www.511tactical.com/All-Products/Shirts/Undergear-Shirts/Holster-Shirt.html

The dreaded INR...

Me.....a blogger? Who'd of thunk it!!!

There are quite a few bloggers in the LVAD community so I thought, what the heck, I may as well jump on the bandwagon and give it a try!!  While we were in the hospital I had a little 4" spiral memo pad that I kept notes on , I won't transfer all of that over but it is nice to have it as a reference and I am glad I have it.

I'll start out with a little of our background!  Todd and I started dating wayyyy back in high school and were married a couple of years later.  We will be celebrating our 34th wedding anniversary this spring!! Todd is a project manager that works mostly with the automotive industry and I work in a daycare.  Both of us are not working at this time...Todd has not been given the" all clear" yet and I am his caregiver , since he can't be left alone I haven't gone back to work either.

We are the proud parents of three wonderful children with the added bonus of 3 Grandchildren and one on the way!!! David and his wife Liz, have two adorable daughters, Emma, 5 and Madeleine, 3...they live about 3 minutes away! Our son, Zac, is next, he is about 15 minutes from us and then we have Ali and her husband, Brandon who have Hunter, 16 months, and a baby due in the spring...they might be 4 minutes away from us if the traffic is good!! So, we are very blessed to have our children nearby!

Up until Todd's heart attack we were just your average family...we were super active, hiking, swimming, kayaking ...never taking any medication at all.  Then this hit and BAM...everything totally changed!! We are try to get used to the adjustments and the lifestyle change and slowly getting the hang of it...or I should say once I feel like we are, something new challenges us !!

It started out like any other day....

It was just a regular Monday...or so I thought!!  We got up early to start our day, Todd went to work and I had that Monday off.  I have Monday's off because I take my Mom to Chemo on every other Monday...this was my off week so I was looking forward to having the day to do some things around the house.  I went to early Mass, came home, cleaned out the closets and had a huge bag of things to take to Goodwill, dropped that off and did a little shopping and cleaned the house.  Our grand daughters came over for dinner and were already there when Todd came home from work, he was thrilled to see them, as always!!  We had dinner, the girls left and we settled in to watch our favorite Monday night show, Dancing With the Stars!  It was about half way over when we decided we were tired and were going to watch the rest of it up in bed...I looked over at Todd and he said he wasn't feeling well and had his hand to his chest!! I hurried and called 911....luckily they were there in minutes and that is when the nightmare began!! They had to paddle him 3 times in the ambulance en route to our hospital about 10 minutes away...He had just suffered a massive heart attack, they call it the widow maker! What followed that was a string of procedures, heart cath, balloon, impella all within a week before they decided to put him on the survival flight to UM hospital in Ann Arbor...then it was touch and go, he had the tandem heart pump , then that lead to the LVAD on Oct 14, 2011. He was in a drug induced coma for about 3 1/2 weeks...it has been a long haul but we FINALLY got to come home on the day before Thanksgiving!! We are slowly adjusting to our new routine...doctors appointments, medicine, alarms, trying not for forget our spare batteries when we leave the house! We have to thank all of our wonderful family and friends for the tremendous amount of support they have given us throughout this, we could not have survived without them...we appreciate it so much!!!