Welcome to some of the newest LVAD recipients....and their stories!!

Mom was diagnosed with Cardiomyopathy in 1996. She had a terrible virus and the words made us sick to our stomach. You see my father was diagnosed several years prior and died in 1995 from complications of a Heart Transplant. So here our Journey begins..... Mom first had a defibrillator put in 1996. Years of heart rhythm problems and in later years CHF were to follow. She ended up with 5 different ICD changes because mainly of faulty lead wires. The last one was replaced in Oct of 2012, that is when we found out her EF had went from 30 to 10. We knew problems were ahead with CHF. So after 4 hospitalizations after her ICD was replaced we were introduced to the Transplant Team and also the LVAD procedure. WE were all very scared but also intrigued that this may be our answer. WE did plenty of internet searchs and also actually watched a surgery on the internet. We decided together with mom this would be the way to go. We had no idea the hoops one must jump through just to get approved for the surgery. It brought back memories of dad and his transplant. We knew this was also what he want want as well for her to be able to live like he had so wanted to. Dec. 10 Mom recieved a NEW LEASE on life. She was dismissed the end of Dec and readmitted for some blood that had collected in her lung, so yet another surgery to fix that. Lots of tweaking with medicine and just getting use to the new way of life was frustrating at times. But then end result, She is ALIVE and coming home today. As I write this I am so Thankful there are genius people out there who think of ways to make others live. We have hoped for this day to come and so happy we made it! So thankful for this web site, it is good for the CAREGIVERS to be able to vent and get ideas from others. We were not the patient but to some extent this has effected our lives as well. Well this is Mom's story. I will post some pictures when she gets home. God Bless Everyone who has the courage to have this surgery and their families to stand by them.