Too Cool for Toes

Some people are too cool for toes.  Apparently my mother is one of them.  We are holding on to the big picture, and while losing half of my mom's foot was not the perfect solution, it is the one we have. The original goal was to wait and see what of her foot would fully come back, and while we have seen vast improvement from those days in the ICU when she threw the blood clots down her leg, we no longer have the luxury of waiting.

The doctors are now saying that for long term quality of life, they would like to evaluate my mom for a heart transplant. This is a super thorough process where they look at every body system, including your teeth. To be eligible to be a candidate for a heart, you can really have no other issues.  Her foot is a big issue.  While it is improving it is still a big risk for infection and would disqualify her from the transplant process.

Ultimately, we need a heart.  The original plan was to reconstruct the left ventricle and possibly place a pump.  That is like a 2-4 year plan, but can be done much more quickly than a transplant.  These doctors think that with this new medication management we can hopefully wait and only proceed with a heart transplant, pending that she qualifies, so that she will only have one open heart surgery.  Less is more my friends, less is more.  In the same breath, the plan can change at any time and we might be back to that very risky procedure to try and hold her over for a transplant if she becomes too unstable to wait.

I want to keep people informed, but it is hard when the plan keeps changing.

So next week we will move forward with foot surgery.  Please pray that it can be done as soon as possible.  We want to be done, so that we can start to recover, so that we can get as strong as possible before a possible transplant.  Since we were unable to have Goat Fest this year, I am now thinking we should craft T-shirts saying "Too Cool for Toes."  Too dark?  Whatever.  I'm grateful for more time with my mom, with or without toes to paint.