My Life at 9200 rpm's: It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

John Cameron Swayze, the late TV newsman and Timex watch pitchman, made the phrase a well recognized advertising slogan for the wrist watch company in the l950's and into the 1970's.  Once, Swayze met an ocean liner as it landed, removed a Timex from the ship's keel, and uttered "It takes a licking and keeps on ticking."  Well done.

As for me, I'm still ticking with my HeartMate II LVAD, three years and three weeks after implant.  There have been a few challenges but the cardiologists at the University of Minnesota Medical Center, Fairview, overcame them and I and my family and friends are forever grateful.

A kidney infection and signs of a blood clot forming in the pump, caused me to be flown by air ambulance from Fargo to Minneapolis March 20.  I was in and out of the hospital (mostly in) over the next month, returning to Fargo as the Red River of the North tried to make up its mind whether to flood the city.

Because the LVAD is a continuous flow device, it pumps blood at a fixed pace until the pump cannot pump.  My fixed flow is 9200 rpm's, which moves more than five liters through my system every minute.  One effect of this constant flow through titanium is to break up some red blood cells.  

The shearing of parts of red cells can begin the clotting process because the body cannot tell that it should not stop the blood flow.  The doctors use medical terms for all of this but I've reduced it to English.

Since there is no way to see inside the pump, blood tests for things like hemoglobin and plasma hemoglobin have been used as indicators of what is happening within the pump.  Hemoglobin is the blood's oxygen carrying capability.  Measuring plasma hemoglobin gives a view of how many red blood cells are being cutup by the pump.

The point is that if the causes of the cell shearing cannot be slowed, stopped, and reversed, replacing the LVAD becomes a real possibility. The body cannot help itself in deciding to try to clot the perceived wound.  

Fortunately, after IV drug treatment and adjustment of medications that can negatively affect kidneys along with adjustments to other medications, my hemoglobin and plasma hemoglobin values began to stabilize.

No LVAD replacement for me for now.  I continue on the heart transplant list, awaiting a suitable donor heart.  As I've said repeatedly, without my LVAD, I would be toast.