BLACK FRIDAY ... and a Right Heart Catheterization

At 9:30am, this morning, the day after Thanksgiving, BLACK FRIDAY, the Mayo Clinic called us.  The insurance approval had finally come in (2 weeks!) We were scheduled for check in and labs at 1pm and the procedure at 2pm.  Carol, one of our transplant nurses, said to come prepared to stay the night ...just in case.  Our reaction: really?  OK.  We really didn't think we would need to but we took along the necessary items and left them in the trunk of the car.

The Right Heart Cath:  a lead is inserted into a vein in the neck that sits right above the artery.  It's threaded down into the right heart chamber to measure pressures and fluid and I'm sure some other things as well.

After the procedure, the doctor came to tell us that Lee would be staying several nights in the hospital.  There was fluid on his heart and his pressures were not good.  This, along with Lee's increasing fatigue, cough, and changing blood chemistry was enough for the transplant doctors to order the IV Milrinone protocol (see previous post for further details).  

Too MANY tubes & wire!

That big yellow curved thing is the catheter in his neck to his heart.

Sometime in the next day or two, a PICC line will be placed in Lee's arm from which he will receive a constant infusion of Milrinone.  At this point in time, we're not exactly sure what that looks like but we do know that he will come home with it.  It will be an on-going, semi-permanent (until he gets a new heart or another invasive therapy) therapy.  Because of his health deterioration and the PICC line being placed, Lee is being moved to status 1B (see post "The List" for what this means).  We'll update with more information as we get and understand it.

For now, we ask for your prayers for peace, calmness, and for this therapy to work until a donor heart is available.  We also ask that you pray for the future donor and that donor's family.  It is a hard, difficult, heart wrenching thing to wait in anticipation of a heart and new life for Lee, knowing the grief that it will bring to others. 

Colossians 3:15 (NAS) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful.