Bill and Kristine Update

All is well with Krisitine. She goes back on Monday for another ultrasound or some type of monitoring.

Shawn came home last night and went up to the hospital to see his dad. He happened to be there when Dr Roberts was doing his rounds. He was able to get some answers, yet no real answers at the same time. The cardiogram showed a ejection fraction of between 20% and 25%. The EF measures the percentage of blood that the left ventricle of the heart is pushing out with each beat. Anything above 50 is supposedly good. 45-55 is mild heart failure. 35-45 is moderate and under 35 is severe heart failure. Since he is not a candidate for surgery at this point, they simply treat with meds and a low sodium diet. (BTW, 2 yrs ago he was 40%)

Shawn spoke with Roberts afterwards and asked him what this all "meant". To which he was just told, "Well, it's not good." Well, Duh!

So I did some searches online last night on EF numbers and it was hard to determine an actual prognosis since there are so many variables. Several articles referred to a 50% 1yr survival rate in this stage of the game. Whereas some claimed that EF can change often and aren't a true indicator. Some patients in his condition are totally incapacitated while others are not even symptomatic. But it does explain his increased fatigue, shortness of breath, fainting spells, dizziness, nausea, memory loss and confusion. So really, we don't know much more than we did other than his heart is getting weaker and weaker which has already been quite obvious.

Yesterday he required oxygen. Not sure about today yet. He did sleep better which is hopefully a sign that the fluid is reducing (though 2 days ago he put back on 4 lbs). Docs still want to keep him in a bit longer to try to get more of the fluid off. At the same time, he will be having a nuclear study perfomed today to determine if his leg/foot infection is into the bone again. So they are keeping him in for that as well.

And so long as everything stays status quo, we are off to the 1,000 Islands tomorrow to spend the weekend with my aunt and uncle. Looking forward to a well-needed few days of relaxation!