Trey is home from the hospital and doing well. We got a call from the hospital this morning asking us to come in earlier, so we were at the hospital by 10:30am and home by 2:00pm. There was not a crack in the catheter (the surgeon tested the VAD once he took it out of Trey). From what the surgeon could tell from seeing and testing the VAD as well as the series of x-rays taken last Monday, the fluid was backing up and coming out of the catheter, into the surrounding tissue, at the end/tip of the catheter. So either the catheter was blocked or came undone. Exactly what happened was not clear, but it was not a problem with the actual VAD. The new VAD is on the opposite side of his chest, in the same place. The surgeon told us our options for the new VAD location (we also looked into what the VAD is made of, making sure it did not contain PVC), got an anatomy lesson in the process, and ended up putting it there. Trey was a mess when he initially woke up and didn’t improve until we left the hospital. Once we were gone, however, Trey was fine, and is now great, watching movies and eating homemade frozen yogurt. He just wanted out of the hospital. I am really hoping we get a break from Surgical Daycare, sedatives, and general anesthetics for a while. We’re all sick of it!!
