Friday, April 3

Today went okay, still some issues with the potassium and magnesium. They are still trying to regulate the amounts, but at least they are getting closer.

The main issue is that John's listing status will probably drop to 1B, which is the second highest priority level, at midnight on Saturday. So if a heart does not become available before then, he will drop off the highest level list and return to being a 1B. The good part of that is that he is just too healthy to stay at 1A, which we have to look at as good news. His lungs are clear, his kidneys are doing a bit better, and his heart has been staying in good rhythm. The disappointing part of it is that his chances of getting transplanted at 1B are very low, since available hearts will go to other 1A patients.

Although there are no long term plans, for the moment they will probably pull the Swan catheter from his neck vein (right now it goes into his jugular vein, then into his heart and out into the pulmonary artery that leads to the lung) on Sunday or Monday, and move him out of CCU and back to the telemetry floor where they can still monitor him continuously but he has a lot less wires and tubes. The good thing is that he will be able to move around more, take a modified shower, etc. The doctor that checks on him over the weekend will make these decisions, but for the moment that is the plan. As far as him coming home from the hospital, we don't really know.

So we are hoping for a heart on Saturday, and after that we will just take a day at a time and see how it goes. Keep us in your prayers, and have a good weekend.