I have discovered two things while at Ochsner that I absolutely love:
1. Chamomile Citrus hot tea made by Mighty Leaf
www.mightyleaf.com
2. Green Tea Velvet Ice
green tea, skim milk (or whatever milk you choose), ice
blended together
I've never discovered these delicacies before because I'm not a coffee drinker, so don't typically go into PJ's...but I'm a forever fan now!!!
Not only does the tea taste wonderful, look how pretty the tea bag is!!
Danny and I don't have any huge updates for today. He felt okay all day today so the doctor put him back on Lasix...oral. Yesterday he urinated a total of 9 liters, which is awesome, but I know he still has at least that much on him. Right now the fluid is sitting in his lower back, the back of his thighs, and in his abdomen. The goal is to get every drop of excess fluid off of him, but it needs to be done slowly so he doesn't start vomiting again. Now that the doctor is giving him oral instead of IV, maybe she will allow him to go home while waiting for the rest of the fluid to leave...we will ask tomorrow. Usually the fellow comes in really early in the morning and has some things to say, but the real information comes around lunchtime when the fellow makes rounds with the supervising doctor. That's the person who makes the final decisions in patient care. She will either have a definite opinion on when he can go home, or it will continue to be a day by day thing.
Tomorrow will be interesting...something a little new at least! a few doctors from OLOL in Baton Rouge are coming to this hospital (Ochsner Transplant Facility in New Orleans) to visit some LVAD patients and start to learn how to care for them properly. The hope is to have a small wing at OLOL dedicated to LVADS who live closer to Baton Rouge than New Orleans. Certainly for critical issues we would have to go back to New Orleans, but maybe for easier things like IV medicines to change the thickness of the blood or the blood pressure pretty quickly...the blood has to be just right for the heart pump to function properly. Remember that LVAD patients are routinely in and out of the hospital for a few days at a time to deal with bloodwork. It would be so much easier to be in Baton Rouge for that instead of here! On the other hand, there is something very comforting about being here with doctors and nurses who are very experienced with LVADs.
Prayer requests:
- Danny's head still really hurts in that area above his left ear--but thankfully the CT scan was negative
- The area where the pump is implanted is super sore--but that's to be expected I suppose considering he had open heart surgery 4 weeks ago and had a mechanical pump sewn to his heart in two places!!
- He is so tired it's making him grumpy--but he isn't sleeping at night because when he does he has nightmares. So the real prayer should be to not have nightmares and instead have a peaceful night's sleep
The costs associated with LVAD implantation and the future heart transplant are high. If you feel led to help us financially, you can do that by donating money to our paypal account.
Go to www.paypal.com
Click on "buy" and then "make a payment".
You will need to enter your email and then ours which is:
Go Fund Me is another source available to support us financially.
or...
Search for the Facebook page entitled "Friends of Danny Sauer".
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