The Progeny
Next to Last Day...
Up early again, for the last fasting blood work, for a month, anyway. Everything looks pretty good, though we will have to keep an eye on the potassium intake since Loren's is upper normal, at 5.0. If it gets up to 5.5 they have a drug that can be administered to bring it down quickly.
We saw the extremely knowledgeable nurse practitioner this morning. She mentioned a report from the people in x-ray that showed a fractured wire. When they cut open the sternum, they wire it back together, with a sort of "twisty-tie" effect. We have yet to hear back about this. It may or may not need attention.
One thing she did mention was that she had been quite alarmed with Loren's activity level pre-transplant. She thinks he looks pretty good, now! He could still stand to gain a little more weight, but as muscle. Steroids (prednisone) ravage the large muscles, and Loren will have to keep after that exercise for a variety of reasons.
One more thing to keep a lookout for is CMV. Loren has been exposed to it, but the donor heart had not. But, the risk would be greater if the situation were reversed, with Loren not exposed and the donor exposed.
In the afternoon, we saw the Exercise doc, who reported Loren's Stress Test of yesterday. He echoed the NP in the importance of time spent warming up and cooling down. Since the heart is denervated, Loren needs to warm up, to start those hormones going, to get the adrenaline going, to tell his heart to get going. You and I have a heart that reacts to starting and stopping activity. Loren's needs extra time to find out what's happenin'.
As to the Stress Test, Loren's heart responded as needed, just at a lower level than expected. Meaning, the doctor remarked that Loren's resting heart rate was the lowest he had seen among transplant patients. For the short term, it makes it a little hard for Loren to feel like he is making progress. In the long term, it could be very good for him, giving him a greater range of heart rate to work with. Loren's heart performed at 57% of what was predicted for a healthy man his age. This compares to his Stress Test of last February when it performed at 38%. In a few more years, the numbers could get even better.
Now, with a transplanted heart, he will never have a normal ability to extract oxygen. He will never have a normal response to exercise. But, all things considered, Loren is doing very well.
There were some other things mentioned, such as sympathetic tones, parasympathetic tones, and vegal tones. But I didn't quite grasp all that technical talk. And, anyway, I've never been a great fan of vegetarians who engage in musical ESP.
Some things are just wrong.
Tweet
We saw the extremely knowledgeable nurse practitioner this morning. She mentioned a report from the people in x-ray that showed a fractured wire. When they cut open the sternum, they wire it back together, with a sort of "twisty-tie" effect. We have yet to hear back about this. It may or may not need attention.
One thing she did mention was that she had been quite alarmed with Loren's activity level pre-transplant. She thinks he looks pretty good, now! He could still stand to gain a little more weight, but as muscle. Steroids (prednisone) ravage the large muscles, and Loren will have to keep after that exercise for a variety of reasons.
One more thing to keep a lookout for is CMV. Loren has been exposed to it, but the donor heart had not. But, the risk would be greater if the situation were reversed, with Loren not exposed and the donor exposed.
In the afternoon, we saw the Exercise doc, who reported Loren's Stress Test of yesterday. He echoed the NP in the importance of time spent warming up and cooling down. Since the heart is denervated, Loren needs to warm up, to start those hormones going, to get the adrenaline going, to tell his heart to get going. You and I have a heart that reacts to starting and stopping activity. Loren's needs extra time to find out what's happenin'.
As to the Stress Test, Loren's heart responded as needed, just at a lower level than expected. Meaning, the doctor remarked that Loren's resting heart rate was the lowest he had seen among transplant patients. For the short term, it makes it a little hard for Loren to feel like he is making progress. In the long term, it could be very good for him, giving him a greater range of heart rate to work with. Loren's heart performed at 57% of what was predicted for a healthy man his age. This compares to his Stress Test of last February when it performed at 38%. In a few more years, the numbers could get even better.
Now, with a transplanted heart, he will never have a normal ability to extract oxygen. He will never have a normal response to exercise. But, all things considered, Loren is doing very well.
There were some other things mentioned, such as sympathetic tones, parasympathetic tones, and vegal tones. But I didn't quite grasp all that technical talk. And, anyway, I've never been a great fan of vegetarians who engage in musical ESP.
Some things are just wrong.
Tweet
posted by Ma Hoyt | 8:05 PM
2 Comments:
Good job at interpreting all the jargon and cutting to the chase. Praise the Lord Loren's doing well. Rejoice, give thanks, and sing!
the other Nancy
We're counting down the hours, ma chère maman. :)
Post a Comment
<< Home