My Life at 9200 rpm's: Heart Felt Fall Reflections, LVADs, Transplants, and Dick Cheney

     Fall brings shorter days and the area around Fargo shifts to cold weather mode. A wag once said North Dakota has two seasons: winter and road construction. 

    It snowed and rained this week just as several yards of dirt were about to be applied to the side yard.  We've had a dry year so far and thought now would be the time to address the low lying yard that attracts any available runoff water from every direction. The weather didn't exactly cooperate.

     The area of our yard turns into a swamp because of the grade. Swamp conditions and several canines do not mix well when they return to the house.  They are cute but clueless about paw prints and tracking.

     The wind borne snow, which didn't accumulate, shook off leaves from the birch, elm, and so-called seedless cottonwoods and  loosened apples from our lone apple tree on the north side of the house.  Overnight temperatures are at freezing and the daytime temps are lucky to be 10 degrees warmer.  Time to start thinking about the snowblower and gathering outdoor weather gear.

    The fill for the yard will arrive this week. Apple pie sounds good.  The snowblower won't start and needs an oil change.  I located my parka, mittens, and boots.  I'm good to go thanks to my LVAD #8358.

     Among the reflective interludes I had was one of former Vice President Dick Cheney, who had a HeartMate II LVAD for more than 20 months before he received a new heart at age 71. His story is inspiring to me. 

     He had many heart related events during his adult life, starting at age 37 with his first heart attack in 1978. He had two other heart attacks in the 1980's. and underwent bypass surgery, angioplasty, and had stents installed.  In fact, Cheney's heart treatments parallel most of the major pharmaceutical and medical procedure advancements that have developed since 1984, when he suffered his first heart attack.

     His heart condition caused him significant pause when he became a vice presidential candidate. Cheney determined that he not want his heart condition to cause a Constitutional crisis or at least a disruption in the event he was totally disabled.  

     The 25th Amendment to the Constitution,  on presidential succession in case the chief becomes incapacitated provides for the transfer of duties for the President but not what to do about a vice president who is unable to perform the duties of his office.  

     Cheney wrote in his 2011 memoir that when he joined the ticket with George W. Bush he planned to write a letter of resignation and keep it on hand where an aide could access it, if Cheney became incapacitated.  Fortunately, his heart condition never incapacitated him to the point the letter of resignation had to be submitted to the Secretary of State.

     I learned for the first time that when Cheney's LVAD was implanted, that he was unconscious for several weeks after the surgery.  His surgeon  told a New York Times reporter, who himself is a physician, that Cheney's 20 plus months with an LVAD was not free of events that were not otherwise specified.

     After all that travail, Cheney's is an amazing story. At 71, he is blazing a trail for all of us older persons awaiting the gift of a new heart.
    
     I am extremely fortunate that the University of Minnesota policy permits me at age 68 to be wait listed for a heart transplant. My part of the bargain is to stay in good overall health and maintain myself with the LVAD since congestive heart failure is a permanent irreversible condition.  

     None of my other organ systems have been compromised, I'm told, and so good health has allowed the U of MN heart transplant team's thorough evaluation of me as a candidate for transplant to give me the thumbs up.

     For patients 65 or older, it has been reported that 243 patients nationwide received new hearts in 2006, while in 2011 there were 332 heart transplants. The data comes from the national Organ Procurement and Transplant Network.  There is no data available for the over 70 group like Cheney.  

     Meanwhile, without the life giving LVAD that has stood me well these past many months, there would be no fall reflections or any other reflections for that matter.  Besides, the apple pie sounds terrific.