Balloon Day

It's balloon day...maybe! The surgeon came in this morning and said that because they had seen aortic valve leakiness in the last echo, they want to repeat that test before doing the balloon. I think I forgot to mention the leaky valve. It's not something the doctors were really worried about, they just said they'd fix it during the transplant or LVAD (whichever came first). So after the doctor told us Danny would have an echo this morning, he left and then of course I had all sorts of questions.  

1. If the valve is too leaky and they don't do the balloon, what does that mean for the LVAD (if you're just now beginning to read this blog and don't know what an LVAD is, just read a few posts down--I gave a dissertation on the LVAD I feel like!) Thursday?

2. Can they do the LVAD without the balloon?

Answers: If the aortic valve is too leaky, putting in a balloon would cause too much blood to leak therefore causing worsening heart failure...which we clearly do not need.

The solution is to just not do the balloon. The LVAD can and would be done without the balloon. The purpose in the balloon (I misunderstood earlier) is to help keep good blood flow to the other organs (particularly the kidney because that is what he is having trouble with) during the open heart surgery. So, the balloon is not a necessary thing, just preferred.

Obviously more stress on his kidney is better than more stress on his heart--so I guess those other organs will just have to suck it up and do their job during surgery without the help of the balloon! Seriously though, I am going to ask how serious not having a balloon is for the other organs during surgery, and what they can do other than the balloon to help them compensate.

Maybe the echo will show that the aortic valve is not leaking anymore and  the balloon will happen as planned...I will let you know!

Praises/prayer requests:

Many of you were praying about Danny's nausea. God heard and Danny slept through the night and is still sleeping this morning without nausea medicine! Thank you for praying that with me and THANK YOU LORD for answering!!!!

Let's keep praying about the nausea and begin praying about anxiety. No one can certainly blame him, but Danny is struggling with anxiety and fear about this whole thing. (I asked him to tell me specifically what he was anxious about and he looked at me with one of those "are you serious?" looks) Sometimes in hard situations, letting go of worry and resting in God's peace requires constant prayer. It's absolutely OK that Danny may be struggling against worry and fear...the Lord will answer that prayer too!

THANK YOU for praying for us. I will write again when I know if the balloon pump is happening or not!