I'm still doing great and everything is doing great. I hope to hear soon about the results of yesterday's biopsy. The first biopsy of the new heart last week showed zero signs of rejection six samples. That's what we're looking for again.
Wednesday's operation to take the fluid off of the heart was a success and I'm hoping to get the drain lines out today.
I was correct in thinking that the new heart goes in the old sack or pericardium. That sack was too large for the new heart and that contributed to the fluid. The body should adjust for the difference in time.
I asked Dr. Mackie (transplant cardiologist) about the condition of the heart and he said the fit is near perfect, it was a three on a scale of four in the "cardiac index." That index relates the size of the body to the cardiac output - it's an exponential scale so three and four are almost identical. Truly a fantastic match.
The donor did have one virus, CMV, that I did not have an so they're keeping that reaction suppressed for six months. The infectious diseases doctor say that I will eventually have to encounter this disease but they want to choose the time that it expresses itself so that they know what the symptoms are in contract quickly. Range of symptoms could be from nothing more than a head cold to something more dire. The heart was so perfect that they rarely ever reject a heart for that type of condition.
I've still got tubes and sutures and things that will have to come out before they're going to let me go home but I'm feeling feisty enough now to start asking, when?
It's all good, now, even the food (sometimes).
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