It's alive!!!!

Where to start? Almost 2 weeks have gone by since I last posted, most of which were spent in the Intensive Care Unit of the Heart Failure Institute at Intermountain Health Care's flagship hospital in Murray, Utah.  Murray is a suburban community of SLC, and is, most fortuitously only 5 min from our town home, where Lisa abides.

The docs in Logan decided I needed to be there and at the time of day, and the digression of having to go through Emergency to get an ambulance, we would be best served by driving ourselves.  We did. That was Tuesday June 7.  We arrived before dark, but not much, and they had a full team on me in no time. I was there until late afternoon, Thursday June 16. It was determined that I was in full a-fib on arrival (and probably had been for some time). The next day I was scheduled for an internal cardio-version. (The shock doc was a beautiful, incredibly smart woman.) They put me out, stuffed the tube down my esophagus and gave me two shocks, a big one followed by a small one. This put me back in normal, sinus rhythm. Some time during this I was catheterized and they began siphoning off all the water I had accumulated (and wasn't getting rid of with oral Lasix.) by IV drips. When I began the oral Lasix on May 31, I was 262 lb. Today I am 220 lbs.  42 lbs in 2 weeks.  I don't recommend this as a weight loss procedure!

I did a follow up day in Intensive Care and then down a floor to the regular heart failure folk. Sometime in that period, I jumped back into a-fib again and they returned me to Intensive Care and the shock doc. This time they did an external cardio-version and I was in normal sinus and have been since. 

Finally, they scoped the arteries and veins of my heart, with me awake. After that it was down to a room with a more private shower and toilet to wait out the residual water loss.  That took a couple days and we are still on a di-uretic, But today I believe we are there--root, bottle and branch.

Out of the hospital on Thursday, June 16 we repaired the five minutes to familiar surroundings and set up home there for a couple days. We are finally home today in Hyde Park--where Jan will be guarding the door against well wishers. In any case, we will be back down to SLC quickly for followup clinics and will take our time going back and forth. (If Hyde Park gets too warm, we can head for the ac in SLC.)

Significant findings.  I have a severely weakened heart that has no physical damage. At this time there is nothing to do except live to make it stronger. In medicine, the shock doc says. "Slow wins." I am still on blood thinners, vasodilators, diuretics and a couple woo-woos (adiodarone) I don't know how to classify but are specifically for ventricular function.  My heart healthy diet will be laid on a substrate of no more than 2000 ml (about 64 oz) of water and no more than 2000 mg of sodium, daily. (There will never be another Big Mac.)  Really, from here on out, no prepared foods. The water restriction was the most onerous thing about the hospital stay. Well, hold that, the catheter was a close second. Well, hold that, the constipation was a close third.

After not being able to walk into the hospital, I am today without a walker, getting up and down more easily each day. With all of the vasodilators and such I must guard against sudden BP drops but that hasn't happened yet. 

Optimism rules!