The Holidays and Donating

Well the holidays are among us, and as we are getting ready for Christmas, all we can think about is that the best Christmas present of all, would be a heart transplant for Larry. Unfortunately Larry has been back in the hospital a couple of times since the last time we wrote on our blog. (Sorry we haven't written in a long time) Due to his infections, his body is immune to most of the medicines, and sadly they only have ONE medicine left to give him if he were to get another infection. This is SO SCARY...we can not afford for him to get another infection. We need to get him a heart before that happens. It seems like we are on pins and needles waiting for that call, the longer it takes, the harder it is to wait. Unfortunately Larry can not travel or be around very many people at one time, because of this reason. He can't be around anyone if they are sick, and we have to be careful going anywhere in public with him. Which means our families are coming to us for Christmas this year! He can't be around our extended families, there are just too many people and so our Christmas this year will be small and with our immediate families. We thank everyone for all of your prayers! They help so much! Knowing that you all are praying for Larry and I is what is keeping us strong. We also need everyone to remember to go to http://donatelife.net/register-now/ and register to donate your organs! Please share it with all of your friends and family as well! There are over 74,000 people waiting for an organ right at this moment.

We hope all of our family and friends have a Very Merry Christmas and a safe and HEALTHY New Year!!

I am going to finish with This quote from the Unos.org website. Please read and really think about what you are reading. "Without the organ donor, there is no story, no hope, no transplant. But when there is an organ donor, life springs from death, sorrow turns to hope and a terrible loss becomes a gift."-2009 UNOS Annual report.

In the hospital again.

Well I am bored in the hospital, all my test came back negative. Still just waiting for the heart. I do have the best room and view on the floor. I do want to thank everyone for the donations. It's helping a lot. If you or a family member are have harry problems, may god bless you. Please pass this blog to people you know and donate your organs.

False Alarm and Benefit

Well today is our 2nd wedding anniversary! I am so blessed to have Larry in my life and to call him my husband is even more of a blessing! He is such an amazing person and I can't wait to spend another 60 years together! All I wanted for our Anniversary was for him to get the call for the heart. And today we got that call, they called around noon and said that they had a heart, and that they would need to check everything out to make sure it was good, they did a biopsy and a lot of other tests to make sure everything was ok. They said they would call us around 3 p.m and let us know if it was good and that we needed to pack up all of our things and be ready to leave when they called. My family was already on their way to St Louis and all of our family and friends were waiting by the phone to hear. About 2:30 rolls around and they call back, and the said it was NOT a good heart. Something came back with one of the tests and its a no go. We were devistated. I think I cried for about 2 hours and all I could think of was that I couldnt wait any longer...I can't do this for another 3 months. We have waited 3 months tomorrow, and as hard as it is to wait, I know that we want to have the best heart, not just A heart, but the PERFECT heart! So here we are, waiting again, and even though I don't want to wait any longer, I really have no choice but to hope and pray that day comes soon. I love Larry so much and to know he could have gotten a heart that was not good is scary, so we are so thankful to his surgeon who checked that heart out and found out that there was something wrong with it, if he wouldnt have done that, Larry could have been in the same boat he is in right now. So thank you all for all of your prayers! We couldn't go through this with out all of you, so keep them up please, and I know the next call will be THE call.

My wonderful co-workers are throwing Larry and I a benefit/fundraiser on Oct. 27th in St. Peters at Mark's sports bar and grill. I think it starts at 4 pm and goes all night. they will also have an silent auction. Kids are welcome to come from 4 to 8. After 8 pm the kids are no longer aloud to stay in the bar. I will have more on this later, but I wanted to keep you all informed.There is also a donate button on the right side of this page, if you will not be able to make the benefit, and would like to donate, please feel free to click on that.

Insurance and Another Infection

One day in August Larry got a phone call from our insurance company saying that we had maxed out for the home health care nurses visits and that we owed them an excesive amount of money. About a week and a half after his nurse stopped coming to the house, Larry went to his cardiac rehab to workout and noticed that he had redness and soreness at his IV site. Along with having a new spot on his chest that looked like a big pimple. A few days later, his home health care nurse came to the house on her day off, to teach me how to change his dressing on his IV. When we took the dressing off, we realized there was some yellow drainage coming from the site and his nurse Alex and I were both concerned immediately. As soon as Larry told her he had soreness a few days before as well as the spot on his chest that had started opening up and draining, she told us to go to the ER as soon as possible. When we got to the ER at Barnes Jewish Hospital there were so many people waiting, there wasn't even a seat available. As soon as they checked him in, they took him straight back to a room and started checking him over. I couldn't believe that he got in so fast, when there were so many people waiting to be seen. They said if you have an LVAD, no matter the problem, you get in right away. They realized he had 2 types of infections and they admitted him to the hospital and he was there for a week and a half. They changed his IV meds and made sure that they were working before he left the hospital. Thats why it took so long for them to discharge him. After he was released to go home, he was not feeling well and felt like he had indigestion, he was sick to his stomach and everything he would eat or drink would taste like metal. He called his Dr. a few different times and they changed his medication to figure which one was making him feel this way. They finally figured it out and took him off of that med. He was placed on another IV medication and has felt better ever since.

While he was in the hospital, they figured out that the insurance company had figured the home health care totals wrong and that he was still able to have a nurse come once a week. THANK the good Lord!!

In the mean time, we are still waiting on the call for the heart transplant. It has been almost 3 months of waiting and I am getting very anxious about it all. I know it will come when it is meant to,  but I am not a very patient person, especially when you never know when you could get that call. Thank you all again for your prayers and support through all of this!

My amazing co-workers are throwing us a benefit/fundraiser on Oct. 27th in St Peters. I will have more on this at a later time. Keep checking back for more information.

Getting on the Transplant List

As of June 26th, 2012 Larry was officially put on the heart transplant list!!! WOOHOO!!! Not only is he on the list, but he is ON TOP! Number one in his blood type. Which means we can get the call at any time. As scary as it may be, we know it has to happen to make him better. They always said that the LVAD was just a bandaid on the heart until he can get a new one. They call it a bridge to transplant. It doesn't really seem real that he is now on the list. All that he has done in the last year to lose the weigh and get as healthy as he can to get on the list has finally paid off. At the same time, I am scared to death for him to have this surgery. Most of me is enjoying this time we have while we are waiting for the call, but part of me is scared and anxious and worried and excited all at the same time. We are both ready for the call, every time Larry's phone rings I practically jump to my feet. We have a small bag packed and in the trunk ready to go when we get the call. All we have to do is drive to the hospital, but it seems like we have already been waiting forever. I know it's only been a month and a half, but when you are waiting for your new life to start, it seems like it has been an eternity. It's like you know you are going to get it, but you don't know when its going to happen. In Larry's words "it's like being pre selected for the lottery, but you don't know when you are going to get the money." It could be tomorrow, it could be months from now. Hopefully it is tomorrow, and we keep praying for it to be, but only God knows when it is going to happen. It's also hard to wish that someone dies, before your husband can live a full life. But that is the circle of life, and God's will. I want to thank all of you who are organ donors! And ask those of you who aren't to please consider it. You aren't going to use them when you are gone, and when you can save multiple lives with just a few organs, that is a miracle. And trust me, those people who get the organs are more grateful than ever that you saved their lives. They don't take it lightly at all.

UNOS is United Network for Organ Sharing and is the private, non-profit organization that manages the nation's organ transplant system under contract with the federal government. Larry is Multi-Listed under UNOS which means that you are listed on multiple lists throughout your area. So he is on the list in many different cities that are close enough to fly the heart in. UNOS has a website if you are interested in more information. www.unos.org.

The actual heart transplant surgery is much easier and faster than the LVAD surgery. They say it is only about 4 hours and that the recovery time is not as long either. As long as everything goes well, they like the patients to be up and walking the next day after surgery. He will have multiple Dr. visits the first couple months after the surgery to make sure his body is not rejecting the heart. And when I say multiple, I mean twice a week for months. With any organ transplant, there is always a chance of rejection and they do as much as they can before and after the surgery to ensure that your body is not rejecting the organ.

The Stroke

At the end of May this year Larry went to his cardiac rehab on Monday like he did every Monday. When he got home, he realized that he was having a hard time using his hand. He was trying to eat dinner with a spoon and he couldn't hold the spoon. And when they came to bring his medicine to the house and he went to sign the paper for the delivery, he couldn't sign it because he couldn't hold the pen. We immediately thought it was probably just a pinched nerve and the next morning he called our family Dr. and went in to see him on Wed. Dr. Roos wasn't sure what the problem with his hand was, so he sent Larry to a orthopedic Dr. On Thurs he started driving to the orthopedic dr. and realized that he felt very weak and fatigued. He was having a slight problem with his sight in his right eye, so he called me at work and I came to pick him up and bring him to the Dr. She wanted to send him to get an MRI the next day, however due to having a Pacemaker/difibrilator he couldn't have an MRI so they sent him for a CT Scan instead. He drove to get the CT scan since it was just a mile down the road from our house. They did the scan and he was on his way out to his car to leave and they ran out to get him. They immediately brought him in to the ER at the hospital and told him that he had a significant bleed in his brain (a stroke) and they would have to send him to the big Barnes downtown and see what those Dr's wanted to do. I drove as fast as I could to the hospital and as soon as I got there. When I saw him I immediately noticed that he was slurring his speech a bit and the right side of his face had started to droop a little bit as well. He also said he noticed his right leg was quite a bit weak as well. Within about 30 minutes of me arriving to the ER The ambulance showed up to bring him to the other hospital. They were nice enough to let me ride along. Once we got to Barnes Jewish, they sent in so many Dr's and nurses to get him set up in the ICU. They all talked to us and said they might have to do surgery but they wanted to wait through the night to see if they could control the bleed without having to do surgery. They gave him 4 units of plasma that night to thicken his blood because he was on blood thinners for the LVAD and gave him even more units with in the next few days. The next morning they came in and said they were going to keep him in the ICU and monitor him for a few more days but they didnt think surgery was necessary and The blood should reobsorb in the brain. About a week went by in the ICU and he had improved a little bit and his speech was better and you couldnt even notice the face drooping anymore so they moved him to a regular room. He stayed in the regular room for  2 more weeks and they were doing physical rehab for his are for about 30 minutes a day and it was improving slowly. They decided to send him to The Rehab Institute of St. Louis.

Larry's Version: I had a bad headache that saturday and it went away. This was one of the signs of a stroke. Well I never knew how it was or what a stroke was like. I had just heard of people having bad problems. Well after the work out and lifting weights that day, I got home and noticed my hand was not working as fast as the other hand. slowly my hand and arm were not working or like they were in slow motion. At about 12 am that night my hand and arm were flopping around like dead weight. I was so scared and was crying cause my arm was not working. The few days I waited was getting worse. After we found out it was a stroke and made it to barnes, they were very suprised I was talking and walking due to how bad the brain bleed was. I really think that constant working out and eating right helped me and my body to stay strong. You really never know how much you need your hands and arms till they do not work. I have been working very hard and attending rehab five days a week. I have gotten the strength back and we are working on the small motor skills. One thing I realized after going to my uncle's church was that I still had it good and was blessed because the guy infront of me had lost his arm and was still making it. If he was able to get dressed and shower, then I know I would be able to get back to my crazy self.

I just want to say that we should never take things for granted, and take things a day at a time cause things can be taken from you in the blink of an eye. One last thing, if you find your self saying you hate your life or life sucks, well trade places with a war vet that has lost their legs, or a cancer patient. I'm pretty sure if your walking and talking with out any health problems then things are going ok. There always someone worse off then you.

Work out plan

The Dr. said that in order for me to get on the heart transplant list, I would have to lose a significant amount of weight. I was sent to rehab in Lake St. Louis. After work twice a week, I was going to rehab to work out, gain strength and lose weight to get on the transplant list. This rehab place was small but seemed to be a stepping stone to getting to a better place to work out. The lake saint louis place seemed to not push me as much as I needed to be pushed. When I started working out I was still in pain cause the bones in my chest and ribs were still healing. While I would do cardio my ribs and chest were popping and clicking often. This made it very hard to work out and breath at the same time but I kept it up so I could get stronger and heal faster. After about three months and a few more infections I was not working out or going to work.

When I was cleared to go back to working out, I was asked by the nurse why I was not going to one closer to my house. I was then able to join the Barnes Jewish Saint Peters workout place. These ladies are the best and are what I needed to make the weight for the list. They pushed and pushed each week and this allowed me to do a 3.5 incline at 3.2MPH for one hour which equals 3 miles. I Now do this three times a week and workout in the morning at home on the days they are closed. What really got me on track to lose weight was some tough love by my Heart surgeon. One office visit he asked me what my weight was (the first thing he always ask). I told him the weight and his reply was what I needed to do it. Looking at the computer, he said to me " Ya know, I dont care if you get a heart transplant, Its not me that needs the heart". The nurse and I looked at each other and did not say a word. She said sorry and I said it was fine cause he was right.

After a year of working out and almost 100 pounds down, all I have to say is I really hate working out. :) Its the most boring thing ever. I do it now cause I can see the benifits and I love them. What I do is work out listening to music that makes you want to move and get in shape. If I do miss a day I feel like I have cheated myself out of getting healthy. Here is the secert to losing weight, Healthy food, no eating out much, and fruits and veggies. It is truly that easy. I am still working out until I get that call that I am waiting for. The call for this secound life that I will be granted. This is something I am more excited about then scared. I have been through so much that the transplant is not what I worry about, I worry about when I will get the call.

MRSA Infection

While Larry was on the ventilator in the ICU after his surgery, He had a nurse that was on duty but was not tending to his needs like his other nurses. The nurses were supposed to turn him every few hours so they don't get bed sores. This nurse only turned him once during her 12 hour shift and when she turned him, she rolled him on his LVAD controller (explained in the last blog). Not realizing what she did, she left him on his controller for hours upon hours because she neglected to do her job. This controller gets so hot, if it is not exposed to air and in turn burned his upper left thigh. I noticed the burn when the night nurse began her shift and turned him. As she was turning him, I asked what the large spot on his leg was, and she was not sure, she thought maybe it was due to the controller or maybe something they had done in the surgery a few days prior.

Once he was off of the ventilator and moved to the 7200 floor, we realized that the burn had started oozing and draining. So the nurses gave us some vaseline like cream to put on it. They continued to put this on him a few times a day and gave us some to take home once he was discharged. Everyone asked what it was, and no one had a clue what the wound was from. We even asked the surgeon and the surgeon said there is nothing they would have done during the surgery that would have caused this burn. The nurses on the 7200 floor thought it might have come from the LVAD controller.

Two weeks after he was moved to the 7200 floor, Larry was doing well and was discharged to go home, but the burn on his leg was still majorly draining. After we got home, the wound started getting really bad and draining and bleeding. Larry was home for a few days when we realized that the dressing we were putting on his wound was soaked through in a few minutes. Because it was a weekend, we couldnt really do much but it continued to get worse and worse and kept opening bigger and bigger. That Monday, Larry had a Dr. appt with the surgeon for a check up. Once we got there, they looked him over and as soon as they saw his thigh, they immediately said they needed to admit him to the hospital and do surgery to debreed the wound.

We then realized Larry had a major infection in his body. While he was home, he could barely move, and when he did he was in SO MUCH pain in his chest that he couldnt breathe very well. It took him 30 minutes to just get out of bed and walk a few feet to the bathroom. The infection from his thigh had spread to his chest. And unfortunately, the hospital did not send a home health care nurse to the house to check on him, so it got worse throughout the first week he was home. They diagnosed it as MRSA and he was put on a IV antibiotic that he had to take every 12 hours. He was in the hospital for another 3 weeks and then got to go home.

Because of the infection, Larry's chest incision did not heal either, and he had to continue to go in for more surgeries to debreed his chest wound and clean it out.

Jumping forward to present day, over a year after his original surgery, Larry's chest is still not completely healed. We still have to change the dressing every day, and unfortunately it will not heal until he gets his heart transplant. Due to the foreign object in his body (the LVAD) his body is not healing correctly and wont completely heal because of the MRSA infection that has attached itself to the LVAD.

Post Surgery 7200

Once Larry was moved from the ICU to the 7200 floor, he was in so much pain, he couldnt walk, because he was on the ventilator for so long. He had to teach himself how to walk again. He had 3 drainage tubes coming from his chest. About a week later they came and pulled those out. Larry said it felt like somebody was punching him as hard as they could in his shoulder and chest.

 The LVAD nurse Nikki had to teach me how to do his dressing. For the first month it was an everyday dressing and then after the first month it was an every week dressing. This takes about 25 minutes every time you do it. It is a sterile dressing and very specific the way you have to do it. It has 6 different steps. Nikki came in every single day for 2 weeks to make sure that I was able to do the dressing perfectly before he could go home.

This is the Power cord that goes in to the side of his stomach that powers the LVAD. It is Very important that this is kept clean and that it doesnt get caught on anything. If it is pulled out it could cause him to bleed out. The patch on the right side is called a hollister patch and is there to make sure the cord doesnt get pulled out. On the dressing there is a silver lining that keeps out any infection.

The cord is attached to a controller which is attached to 2 batteries OR to a power module (which is plugged in to the wall) at ALL times. The batteries only last up to 12 hours at a time. He has to carry around a bag that holds his controller and batteries and all together with everything in it, the bag weighs 5 lbs. If the batteries get low, an loud alarm goes off and he only has 15 minutes to change them.

This is a picture of the bag with the controller on the left and the 2 batteries on the right.

On top of all of this, Larry had to be in the hospital for 3 weeks after the surgery and then came home. Once he came home, he developed a MRSA infection and had to go back in to the hospital for 3 more weeks.

To be continued......

The LVAD Surgery (Larry's Version)... Before And After

While having the problems with being light headed and feeling like my veins were straining, It took everything I had to make it to work until one day I just could not do it anymore. I sat on the couch with out the tv on. I had my eyes closed and tried to go to sleep, But with my Left ventricle failing I could not sleep. It had been a week staying up wishing I could sleep. In the mean time I was getting shocked by my defibulater.

The first shock was at work. I was not feeling great at all, and had been this way for going on two months before getting better. I was walkingwith a co-worker and got into our tech room. I sat down in a chair and was talking to my co-worker and logging into a computer. I saw a flash of white light which is all I remember. Now in the mean time I can tell you that I think people that die with there eyes open felt the way I am going to explain. My eyes were wide open, and I could see my co-workers mouth moving but I could not move or talk. It was like I was trapped inside my body. I then came too with him saying Larry, Larry are you okay. I told him yeah whats wrong, what are you looking at. Thats when he told me I had passed out. This happen two more times before I received the LVAD.

I finally made it to my doctors office at Barnes Jewish Hospital. I had my echo and then went to vist Dr. Ewald. I had a bad felling he was going to say i needed a LVAD. I hoped to god he would not say it. I walked in the room and he looked at me and shook my hand. I saw he could tell I was not feeling good at all. Now most of the time he walks out waits a bit and then walks in with good news. He walked out and then back in with in about 10 secounds and said I needed an LVAD. I cried. Now some people that know me know that i dont cry ever. I did not cry when my grandma died. I cried more that year then I did in my whole life.

I was ready for the LVAD after talking to Heidi which is Dr. Ewalds nurse, and Dr. Silvestry. I saw many heart doctors, and they said that they could not believe I walked in the building, but further more was alive and talking because my numbers were off the charts. When Cara arrived I told her we were going to do it but she was not sure. We thought about a 2nd opinion but there was no time. I call all the nurse and the surgeon, and told them my wife is worried and is not sure. They all came and talked to her to assure her it was the best thing. So we agreed to do the LVAD assist device.

I kissed Cara good bye as they wheeled me to the room for the LVAD. I was scared but ready to feel better. I remember doctor I-wen Wang saying are you ready. I said are you? he said yes, and I said lets do it.

The LVAD surgery (Cara's Version)

Monday, May 9th, 2011:

I get up to the hospital early in the morning for the surgery. All I want to do is lay next to him and hold him, I just dont want to let him go. No one knows what the out come will be, but all we know is that he has to feel better afterwards, right? My family and Larry's family are there and they are ready to wheel him back to surgery. I tried to stay strong, and as soon as I walked out of his room, I just ran to my brother and started crying. He said " Cara you have to be strong for him, when they take him out of the room and wheel him by us. He needs you to be strong for him." So I dry up my tears and the nurses take him out of the room, wheel him by us, and I get one last kiss before the surgery. As soon as he can't see me anymore I start bawling. If it werent for my family, I dont think I would have made it through that day. They were there for me, and always have and always will be.

We all go in to the waiting room, and wait what seems like forever for the first update. The nurse calls us on the phone in the waiting room, " They have finally started the surgery on your husband. Things didnt get off to the greatest start but he is stable and doing well now." She then said that she would call back with periodic updates. They all seem to be pretty positive updates, and she then calls us to let us know that they were closing him up, and Dr. I-Wen Wang will be out shortly to speak with us. About an hour or so later, Dr. Wang comes in the waiting room to talk to us. It was the scariest moment so far because he then said "Well he is out of surgery and going to the ICU. However, his heart stopped at the beginning of the surgery for 2 1/2 minutes before we could get the heart and lung machine hooked up to him. Once we got his heart started again, and the heart and lung machine hooked up, everything went smoothly. Unfortunately we won't know how that will affect him until he wakes up." I had no idea if I would ever get my Larry back, I didnt even know if he would wake up.

We were able to go back to his room about 30 minutes later, he had a ventilator in and was heavily sedated. I never want to see him that way again. They told us that he would probably only be on the ventilator for 2 days or so. On the 3rd day, he started moving a bit, I squeezed his hand and said "I love you" and he smiled :D I knew that "my Larry" was in there somewhere, I just didnt know much else at that point. A couple days later, They slowly started to wake him up. I finally saw his eyes for the first time and he squeezed my hand and that was all I needed to know that he was going to be ok. On the 6th day of being on the ventilator, they finally said they thought he was ready for them to remove it. They let me stay in the room when they took it out. It was hard to see but I am glad I was in there for him. The first thing he said was that he was hungry, but they had a feeding tube in, so he couldnt eat anything. A day after he got the ventilator out, they took out the feeding tube and moved him to the step down unit. He was able to eat a light liquid diet for a day. And then was able to eat regular food(if you can call hospital food regular)

A new house and an LVAD

On Friday April 29th, 2011 we closed on our new house. The following Tuesday, Larry had a cardiac catheterization to see why he was feeling so lightheaded and dizzy all of the time. He was immediately admitted to the hospital because they found out during the cardiac cath, that his left ventrical (left side of his heart), was no longer pumping the way it should. We found out that Larry needed open heart surgery to have an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device) and they wanted to do it the following Monday. They said that if he didnt have this surgery that he could die at any time. We were devistated. We had no idea what to do next, we had only been married for 7 months.We first thought that we would get a second opinion, however we realized that this was the best possible hospital for him to be at, and they knew what they were talking about. They just couldn't beleive that Larry was sitting up talking to them and joking around. They said that the shape his heart was in, that he shouldn't be alive, let alone walking in the hospital.

That weekend we were supposed to move in to our house and they wouldnt let Larry come home. It was so risky to let him go, due to the shape his heart was in. So my amazing brother Chad and sister in law Beth, emailed all of our friends and family and asked them to come to St. Louis and help us move. So many of our friends and family came and helped me move in to our house. Not only did they help me move, they also unpacked the whole house and hung pictures up on the walls and organized everything. They wanted it to be homey when Larry got home from the hospital! We can't thank them enough for all of their help!

****Currently It has been 10 days since he has been on the heart transplant list. Still no call :( But we know that it will come with the will of God! 

My Doctors. The best Docs around.

It amazed me how smart these to guys are. If you want the straight up truth they give it to you, when fighting this heart crap, thats what you want. Dr. Scott Silvestry will be doing the transplant, Dr. Ewald got me this far and all I am doing is waiting for the call to say they have a heart for me. Check out the vids and if you know some one with heart problems, tell them to see these guys.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esBo-AFdIvg&list=PL50CC96C34D46EB74&index=11&feature=plpp_video

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wn68v6sI5ug&list=PL50CC96C34D46EB74&index=12&feature=plpp_video

Doctor visit

Well I am at Barnes hospital, and all is well on this doctor visit. They are very excited to transplant me. The heart could not come faster. I know its been just a week or so but I am ready. This LVAD is a curse but a blessing. I hope no one ever has to endure the pain and suffering Cara and I have been through. Till this day, people don't know that my bones hurt often. Just imagine your ribs rubbing on a device in your body. Your bone ache. I am so happy to be number one on the list for my blood type. God will bring me a great heart to replace the great one I have. More to come.......

The Beginning

This is a blog telling the true story of Cara and M Larry Dixon and his heart problems. Thank you for reading our story.

In March 2008, we realized that Larry was starting to become out of breath while walking short distances. We went to an urgent care to get him checked out, and as they were doing tests on him, I was sitting in the room next to the nurses station. I overheard a Dr call someone and say "I have an obese man in my office and he is having a hard time breathing, isn't that normal for an obese person? ok thats what I was thinking" and she hung up the phone. The next thing I know, Larry is back in the room and she walks in and says there in nothing wrong, its normal for a person his size, and he is released to go home.  A few days later, his father had some heart problems and was in the hospital. We were talking to his family in the hospital and I started telling them of Larry's problems walking from room to room and being out of breath. As they were listening his dad said "Larry those are the same symptoms that I was having before I was put in the hospital." After his dad said that, we go to his Dr. and he immediately admits Larry in to the hospital. He was there for a week and had been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and was sent home with a massive amount of medicine.

He is then told to go see a specialist Dr. Trimer at Barnes Jewish St. Peters, and Dr. Trimer said he had a heart murmer. That Dr. then referred him to Dr. Timothy Smith at Barnes Jewish Hospital in St. Louis and Dr Smith implanted a difibrilator/pacemaker. Larry was then referred to Dr. Gregory Ewald at Barnes Jewish and Dr Ewald controlled Larry's heart problem with a regimen of medicine.

In September 2010 Larry and I got married and went to Cancun for our honeymoon. During our trip he was sick with a cold. In November 2010, Larry got pnuemonia which turn made his heart fail to pump correctly. Larry was sick from then until May with lightheadedness and dizziness. He was sent to multiple Dr's and no one could figure out what the problem was. He then went back to Dr. Ewald in May 2011 and we then found out that Larry's left side of his heart was not pumping and that he needed an LVAD (Left Ventricular Assist Device).

If you are interested in hearing more of the story, please follow this blog. There is a lot more to come.

Skipping ahead to June 26th, 2012 Larry is currently listed as a 1A at the top of the heart transplant list waiting for a heart transplant, we could get a call at anytime.