It all begins...

Now is the time to explain what is going on with Kris. He has congestive heart failure, atrial fib, ventricle fib, and diabetes. About two months ago the defibrillator (he has a pace maker/defibrillator) went off. Which means his ventricle went into fibrillation. If he hadn't had the defibrillator, he would have died. This got him to see Dr. Freedman (heart electricity) at the UofU Medical Center. He adjusted the pace maker and scheduled an appt at the clinic at the UofU for the end of May. Kris ended up spending 7 days in hospital. When he went for a checkup two weeks later, they said they wanted to do ablation on the heart. Ablation is where they put five catheters into his heart; two through the left groin, two through his right groin, and one through his neck. The catheters have cameras to map the heart and to cauterize specific spots to keep the electrical impulses going in the right direction and firing in a better rhythm. In order for this to happen his blood had to clot between 2.5 and 3.5. When he went in on July 6 his blood was at 6.2. Much too thin. They gave him a vitamin K shot and a few hours later it was at 5.9. They sent him home. He went back the next day and it was at 5.0. He got another shot of vitamin K and sent him home. The next day it was 2.7. Perfect!! They took him into a room to look at the heart to make sure there were no blood clots. (If there was a blood clot during ablation, it could break loose and cause a stroke.) The procedure was a TEE. (Trachea echogram) They put a tube down his trachea and used sound waves to look at his heart. They found a blood clot as large as the end of my little finger with a tail. It looked like a tadpole. Everything came to a screeching halt. We were sent into a clinic exam room, while Dr. Freedman, Dr. Salik (heart plumbing) and Dr. Akoum (ablation) had a conference. Dr. Salik came in afterward and told us Kris needed a heart pump as a bridge to heart transplant. You can look at one on the UofU Medical Center website in the cardiology section. Friday he went back and had education in heart pump, transplant, nutrition, and financing. He had 21 vials of blood drawn, EKG, check x-ray, TB test, and three pulmonary tests. He is scheduled to finish the tests and a psych eval on July 26. He will meet with the surgeon and find out when the pump will be installed. (That comes from growing up in a house of mechanics.) There is so much more that will happen, but this explains where he is today.

Kris has missed work since July 6, and doesn't know when they will let him come back. Something about liability. All his vacation time is used up, so things will get really interesting fast. He is a bit low through all this, which is to be expected. He is trying to adjust to how sick he really is, and has been.

He is scheduled for a colonoscopy and intense contact with the diabetes Dr. to keep it under control. He found out today that the tests ordered with the gastroenterolist are elective. That means paying full price.

Pray for him. But there is good news!! Angela received her mission call to Ohio Columbus mission and will enter the mission home in Provo on October 6, 2010.

Our whole family's lives have begun to change in many ways with many more changes to come.