Unconditional Love

Years before the LVAD, Joe had medical issues that were a struggle as well. He was diagnosed in 1996 with Hodgkin’s Disease. This is cancer of the lymphatic system. He was given two months to live. He defeated all odds that the doctors gave him and survived over 22 years. He received chemo and radiation which killed the cancer and put him in remission. The radiation he received back then was a very high dose and it caused damage to his body.

We had no idea that the radiation damage would slowly show up over time. The first sign of the damage was Joe’s teeth. He had radiation to the neck and jaw area which then cause tooth decay in most of Joe’s teeth. He had to have them all pulled and had to get full dentures. This was only the start of what would lead us to the LVAD.

Joe was radiated from the neck all the way to the groin area. As the years went on he had to have a spinal fusion to his lower back because the radiation caused the tissue between his disc to deteriorate. The radiation caused narrowing in his carotid artery which needed a stent, narrowing and blockage in some arteries in his heart, which also needed stents, gave him a fatty liver. It caused two leaky valves in his heart which the doctors just watched and said they were keeping an eye on, but one needed to be replaced and the other one repaired. This was done with the LVAD surgery. He had severe narrowing of his duodenum which caused him to throw up every night for almost a year and the doctors could not figure out why until they opened him up and seen the damage.

The narrowing duodenum was just diagnosed in May 2019 and the doctors did a double stomach bypass which was supposed to fix the problem, but it made things worse. Joe’s heart, after the surgery took a turn for the worst. This surgery put Joe into advanced heart failure. It happened so quick and there was no turning back. He wasn’t even healed from the stomach surgery and his was going back under for the LVAD pump. He has been through so much and is still fighting. The doctors don’t know how he survived through all of this.

A lot of people think that Joe did this to himself. Did he take good care himself? No he didn’t. But even if he had, the radiation he received to save his life caused all this damage. Now, he is once again fighting for his life. He’s still alive, still here and still beating all the odds. With all the MEDICAL ISSUES he has, it’s a miracle he’s still here.