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Maureen R. Caregiver

Ischaemia

My husband had his LVAD op October 2017 10 days later he developed bowed ischaemia and had life saving surgery again, he had bowel resection and an illeostomy. He is lucky to have survived. Now over year later he has had drive line infection, regular low magnesium and potassium also, he looses fluid through the illeostomy and can't really gain weight. Prognosis is poor, has anyone else encounter these complications. It is very very sad, he is 61 and a beautiful person
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Frederick H.

I HAVE NUMEROUS COMPLICATIONS, i AM IN THE HOSPITAL NOW WITH MANY COMPLICATIONS, ZZZZZZNO ONE SAID IT WAS GOING TO BE EASY
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In reply to by Frederick H.

Maureen R.

I hope you recover from your complications. I wasn’t expecting such a serious life saving procedure to be “easy” merely wanting to know if others have experienced similar serious and debilitating complications.
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Amy T.

My husband had HM3 surgery April 2018 and then had a pump malfunction and had to have it replaced in November of 2018.  During this time, he suffered a stroke that left him with very limited speech and some right sided weakness.  He also had to have an ileostomy due to his bowel shutting down.  After surgery, he ended up on dialysis and had to had regular dialysis treatments 3x a week.  Trying to juggle the fluid intake with dialysis, ileostomy and HF was crazy! He constantly had low flows.  He was in the hospital for 10 months! 

He is truly a miracle! On a hospital admission for INR issues, they rechecked his kidney function because he started to make urine.  Thank God, he was able to be off of dialysis! He also was able to have his ileostomy reversed.  These two things were major victories! He was able to keep his fluid level stable for the most part and actually started to gain some weight.  He had lost over 100 lbs during the 10 month hospitalization.  With speech therapy, he is able to speak again and for the most part does well.  His personality is very different after the stroke, but that is a whole other issue....

I feel like many patients do well and have a smooth road (well as smooth as one can have). Some people just have complication after complication.  We are thankful that things finally turned for the better.  As of now, he is DT as he isn't strong enough yet to have a transplant.  Hopefully that changes too! They are even discussing doing a kidney transplant with the heart if needed.  

I try to stay positive but it is a daily struggle.  We take the good days and try to work through the bad ones.  Life has been rough for sure but we are thankful for the progress he has made and the time that his LVAD has allowed us to have.  

I know this is an older post, so I am hoping your loved one is doing better.  Prayers for you and your family.

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In reply to by Amy T.

Maureen R.

You and your husband have been through so much, so many complications to overcome but you’ve remained positive and look forward . It is good to hear he is making progress after so many set backs. It is exhausting on so many levels.

my husband unfortunately cannot have illeostomy reversed as told he could not withstand surgery. He is now in hospital having peg tube inserted for feed. We’ve had pessimistic prognosis but he remains cheerful and positive . 
 

I hope your husband continues to make such good progress and can go in to have transplant, good luck and best wishes to you both