LVAD Man? IRON MAN? PEOPLE ASK WHY...

Iron Man?
LVAD Man!
Many people ask why!

For reasons that are not obvious and reasons that are... such as his artificial heart, demeanor and driven strength... Iron Man became a symbol for me and my family.

The Iron Man character is fierce but appropriate. I never saw the movie before ...UNTIL I was in the hospital bed, with the LVAD situation fresh in my mind and the HOSPITAL providing all CCU patients & LVAD recipients with FREE Premium TV and Movies.

The Movie playing at the time was Iron Man... very fierce looking at first, the character in the movie was an ironic comparison and adrenaline raiser for me. The PHOTO below is the 1st Iron Man (Wont tell you too much, not to ruin the movie lol) as the result of being built purely in a dark dingy cave in the middle of nowhere.

I photoshop-ed an American Flag on Iron Man's right arm and the caption.

PHOTO BELOW IS THE KNOWN VERSION OF IRON MAN, tactfully and SURGICALLY CREATED IN THE PROPER ENVIRONS OF A LAB:

And as for me, the hospital was NOT MY dingy cave, MY dingy CAVE was being "under" the weird edgy soreness and stupor of the MEDS and open-heart surgery. MY cave "escape" was post-op when I was allowed to go HOME and conquer my normal and newest tasks once again. Thank you Columbia-Presbyterian Surgery Team, LVAD Nation and Dr Bijou!!!

***IRON MAN 2 PREMIERS MAY 2010***

HERE IS TRAILER FROM 1ST IRON MAN 2009:



and the good saga continues...

ELEPHANTS TRUNK to TRUNK... another LVAD powered blog i found.

I went for an LVAD check up and met a 60-year-old (give or take) LVAD recip ...nice guy. He told me of his LVAD and the heavy old model batteries he uses. His batteries hold a charge of 4 hours whereas the new model lithium batteries hold a charge 12-14+ hours. A full charge on my Thoratec lithium batteries has lasted 18+ hours.

Anywhich, he continued to tell me that he enjoyed coming back to the hospital because he "comes back home" to other LVAD recipients... like elephants separated at birth and are reunited after a lifetime apart coming from a zoo or a circus, etc. I understood what he meant, there is an automatic "family" closeness, a brotherhood/sisterhood bond that materializes...

For a better understanding visit The Elephant Sanctuary in Tennessee, founded in 1995, is the nation's largest natural habitat refuge developed specifically for endangered African and Asian elephants. It operates on 2,700 acres in Hohenwald, Tennessee — 85 miles southwestof Nashville.

http://www.tappedintoelephants.com/asp/index.php

Now this brings me to Mac & Sue's blog. They seem to be one of only a few blogs devoted to LVAD life and advocacy pioneering cyberspace. Mac has the HeartmateII and, in an effort to make life easier for those with the older batteries and LVAS, Mac DESIGNED and BUILT his own lithium batteries... making them much lighter and or smaller with a longer charge life.

Also on their blog are observations of LVAD life and advice.

Finding their blog, I felt like that elephant, coming home to others :-) that the 60-year-old LVAD recipient was describing to me. Check out Sue & Mac's LVAD accessory inventions... I will let them explain it to you here...

http://heartmateii.blogspot.com/

And the good saga continues...

HeartMate® II 75 page PDF DOWNLOAD:

LVAD/Thoratec info/Revision O December 14, 2006:

HeartMate® II LVAS:

Patient Management Guidelines

75 page PDF DOWNLOAD here:

http://www.fda.gov/ohrms/DOCKETS/ac/07/briefing/2007-4333b2-20-%209_4%20HM%20II%20Patient%20Management%20Guidelines.pdf

And the good saga continues...

"Why were you so quiet? It woke me from my sleep!?"

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Perhaps this is a story that words can not do it justice, however i will try because this is Khristine's (from the FAMED "LVAD TEAM" of NYP) favorite story :-)
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It's 3am, my wife sleeps peacefully in bed. It has been months since my surgery; having an LVAD implanted and grafted to my heart. One way or another my wife is always by my side watching my back and watching over our household. Its amazing how she also manages her full-time job in her full schedule. And there she rests, after a full day, she is quietly sleeping.

When we sleep, THORATEC sugggests the LVAD's power source should be plugged into the Power Base Unit (PBU) ...while the PBU is plugged into the wall's electrical outlet. In this mode I can walk up to 20-25 feet with the PBU's power cord before i run out of leash.

Should i need to walk further, I must change my power source over to battery. Now 3:05am wanting to walk further into the livingroom, I need to change the power source and will try not to wake her up.

Now its 3:10am and when switching over to battery, the PBU and the System Controller (that is worn around my waist) will launch high pitched alarms to alert me that there is a brief disconnection and a connection is needed quickly.

However, if you can transfer from PBU to battery in less than 5 seconds, no alarms will sound; all remains quiet.

So in an effort not to disturb my wife's sleep, I slowly remove myself from the bed and exchange power sources in under 5 seconds. No blaring and high pitched alarms. She did not wake up :-)

It wasn't until i was walking outside the bedroom, my wife woke up lunging, startled from the "emptiness" of the bed. She Looked at me and quickly said "Why were you so quiet? It woke me from my sleep!?" And here i was trying to avoid the LOUD alarms not to wake her up but found being quiet... she wakes up too.

My wife, My best Friend, the caregiver always has my back!

and the good saga continues...