One year and one day on the heart transplant list: But who is counting?

        Halloween marked the passing of a year on the heart transplant wait list.  It sped by.  Because I was listed on Halloween, it is easy to remember.

     My HeartMate II was installed when I was 65, almost 66.  Lyle Joyce, M.D.,  and his associates implanted it at St. Marys Hospital of Mayo Clinic in Rochester, MN.  As soon as I was thinking clearly, my thoughts focused on recovering and getting healthy.

     As readers know, congestive heart failure is no picnic.  I never thought I'd feel better.  The LVAD made all the difference. It took a while to build endurance, develop balance, the ability to walk and other things. My LVAD gave me the chance to recover and get healthy.  I wouldn't call it second nature to have this device but the device and I get along famously for the most part.

     The Mayo team said it would be months before I could be considered for being listed for transplant.  I smoked until a month before the implant. To be considered for listing, all other health factors aside, a candidate must be tobacco free for six months.

     By September, 2010, my six months was up.  Mayo put me through a week of tests.  All my systems were good: kidneys, lungs, liver et al.  Yet the decision Mayo made was against being listed.  I had "two co-morbidities": my age, then 66, and an implanted mechanical circulatory device--LVAD.  

     Does anyone except a medico, consider age a "morbidity?"  Age cannot be discounted.  That's a given.  Everybody dies of something, right?   
     
     My damaged left ventricle will not recover.  I recognize that. Its essential pumping functions were replaced by the LVAD. It will be with me until further notice.

     It is ironic that both co-morbidities were known before the Mayo transplant evaluation commenced.  I always wondered why Mayo would conduct the evaluation with the myriad medical tests, if it were a foregone conclusion on Mayo's part that I was not a candidate for a new heart.  I never got a straight answer.

     But months later, I learned that Mayo had an unspoken and unacknowledged age limit of 65 for being considered for a heart transplant.  Clearly, I was past the deadline when I applied.

      Fast forward to April, 2011.  I decided to seek a second opinion about being a heart transplant candidate.  Make no mistake, I remain comfortable with my LVAD.

      The University of Minnesota Physicians Heart at Fairview in Minneapolis is where I chose to seek care as an LVAD patient.  I was accepted as a patient in April, 2011, and was listed as a candidate for transplant on October 31, 2011.

     So I have passed a year on the UNOS (United Network for Organ Sharing) heart transplant list.  The transplant surgeon at the U of MN said if he had to guess, I would be on the list for about 14 months before a donor heart might become available.  I have the same two "co-morbidities" that I had at Mayo, but they do not seem to be an absolute impediment at the U of Minnesota.

     Further, the U of MN doesn't have the same cutoff for the age of the recipient as Mayo did. Recipients into their 80s have been transplanted. I'm in no hurry but it wouldn't make a bit of difference if I were.  No one knows if, as, or when a suitable donor will present himself.  I only noted the year of waiting as justification for writing this blog post.