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*HelpForThePruettFamily

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HelpForThePruettFamily
HelpForThePruettFamily

Fundraising for

Thomas & Amy Pruett

Fundraising forThomas & Amy Pruett
Summer Shore

Summer Shore

Corvallis, Oregon

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At the end of October, Thomas was admitted to the ICU for a trifecta of Covid-meaning he is one of the rare patients with covid attacking his gut, his lungs and his heart.

The Covid in the heart is the has led to  myocarditis and heart failure, which is complicated by the Covid induced pneumonia. He is thankfully responding well to treatment, but will have some permanent heart damage and is going to be in the hopspital for weeks, with a long slow recovery when he gets home. 

Prayers are greatly appreciated! Prayers for health obviously, but also finances. While Thomas will have his job waiting for him, it wil be weeks of physical therapy to be able to do regular activities of daily living and even longer before he will be well enough to return to work. 

While Thomas is in the hospital, his wife Amy is caring for their children and healing from covid herself. Your gift will help offset quickly rising medical bills and provide much needed support for their family while Thomas heals and recovers. 

Thank you for your prayers and for your support for the Pruett family💜

 

Fundraiser Updates (5)

April 10, 2024
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

Hello all! Been a little bit since my last update. You can copy and paste the following link to check out our latest news. Thanks and grace to you all! - Thomas 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ySDe2Ud8DivJgKbG/?mibextid=oFDknk

December 15, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore
PRUETT HEALTH & FAMILY UPDATE - December 14th, 2023
PART 1
So October to December between updates....yeaaah sorry, my bad, but in our defense, we actually were quite busy between October 18th & now 🙂 Halloween, 2 birthdays, Thanksgiving, many much medical appointments and yes, unfortunately too many ER visits make for 2 months to pass by in a flash! I'm sure you know the feeling. So, settle in and prepare for lots of pictures! So...Thomas' health or family update first? Let me ask my 6 year old editor, Moriah: she says family, so there we go!
 
The kiddos were super psyched for Halloween, and we were on it this year with having picked out our costumes a month ahead of time! This year we had Link & Zelda from Zelda, Kai from Ninjagos, and Westley & Buttercup from The Princess Bride. We were blessed to go to Salem with good friends and walk the neighborhood with their 5 kiddos as well, which was a great time. I struggled a bit to keep up, especially up hills, but everyone was very understanding and I made it, though I definitely felt it the next day or two. Soon after that was Madison's 21st birthday, which was a full day! Crepes for breakfast, a morning hike exploring Tabor Park (which was awesome and we want to go back every day!), ending with a fun cherry-themed party!
 
Crazy to think our oldest girl is a full-fledged 21 year old adult, but that's the way life goes! We're very proud of Madison - she's about to successfully complete her first term at Portland Community College for elementary education, and is signed up for her next term and looking forward to it! Her and I also have enjoyed making an occasional Boba our thing, and there's a TON of different Boba places to try out around where we live - we'll probably not get to them all! We're thankful that Amy & I both have a good, strong relationship with her right now, and that she's a very intentional great big sister to her other siblings - she even offers to watch them so Amy & I can go out on dates, which is a huge blessing! We're excited to see just where she goes!
 
Two days after Madison's birthday is Amy's! Because we have two parties right next to each other, Amy decided on a watermelon cake this year decorated with homemade whip and tons of different fruit. I have to admit, I absolutely despise watermelon haha, but I was super happy to attempt the cake she wanted - she was happy with it, and that's all that matters!
 
Just a few days after that we (finally) headed all the way down to Winston, Oregon to check out the Wildlife Safari. Amy had found an amazing deal on tickets that were super discounted through Groupon all the way back in June, just after my LVAD surgery. In truth, we kind of forgot about them until Amy checked them out and realized we only had 10 days left to use them before they expired! So it was a bit of a drive from Portland, but it was SO worth it! We went on what turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day and all the animals were out and about! If you've never been, its super worth going - it's a beautiful place and even just driving through you see tons of different animals. Amy & the kids had gone earlier in the year when I was in the hospital with her parents so I had never been, and I was supremely impressed! Yay for discounts so families on a tight budget can actually still go do things!
 
Thanksgiving came up quicker than we realized, and this year...gulp...I handled the turkey instead of my culinarily trained wife. I did an apple cider brine for just over 12 hours, and then smoked it with pecan pellets. It turned out actually super delicious! The breasts were super juicy and flavorful, and the legs and wings, while slightly overdone, were still super good. My only critique of smoking whole birds that I've encountered is that the skin just doesn't get very crispy. I've read that I could throw it under the broiler right before serving to crisp it up, but hey, gives an excuse to experiment! We were blessed with Amy's sister and her husband coming up to join us. Amy's parents were supposed to but they were both sick unfortunately, but we still had a great meal together and shared awesome family time!
 
Something we usually do every year is cut down our own tree. Living in Corvallis and Springfield, this usually wasn't an issue, but the closest tree-cutting zone I could find was a solid two hour drive from our house. Amy and I would be game, but that's a long time for kids, and admittedly I don't travel the best myself these days. But one Sunday visiting Scappoose Church of Christ we saw a sign for a u-cut tree farm, so we decided to check it out. I highly recommend Marquardt Farms north of Scappoose. Family owned, super friendly and helpful, with complimentary snacks, drinks, etc., it was a great experience, especially on a whim. And we got a great looking tree we all took turns cutting down. We brought it home, set it up, and decorated it the next day, which is always a blast! The kids enjoyed laying under it and looking up, saying that it looked like looking through the trees at the stars on a clear night.
 
Something I also had saved up for was a treat for Amy I gave her on her birthday, and were able to go to said treat thanks to our oldest being willing to watch the other kids! On December 3rd I took Amy to see her favorite Christian band, For King and Country, for their Christmas concert series. It was an awesome concert, those guys are amazingly energetic performers with a great testimony, and just really and awesome show...and Little Drummer Boy was properly spectacular!
 
That leads us to now - eleven days before Christmas. The kids are looking forward to their Christmas break from school, but are rocking their schoolwork each day. Moriah's reading, and Melissa writes and knows all her letters and numbers. The boys are voracious readers - Mitchell finished the Harry Potter series in 6 weeks to the day - that's over a book a week in addition to school and family stuff! Matthew is right behind him in the series, and is going great with his braces. He just had an appointment and it looks like we'll be putting the top braces on in an appointment or two when his bottom teeth move a little farther back. Moriah has been super excited about our Elves on the Shelf's shenanigans this year, and has been particularly enthralled with the arrival of a stuffed reindeer to go along with the elves, but she can handle the reindeer - she's been sleeping with it 🙂 Melissa, as I said, has been writing wonderfully and is wonderfully sassy as always, though she's beginning to be more independent and do more things apart from mama and her big sister, which is nice to see. though she's still very attached 🙂 Amy & I are living lives blessed beyond measure, even with my health issues, and no amount of gratefulness or thanks to God could come close to how we feel when we see our family, kids, and just where God's taken us in this amazing life! Be grateful, friends!
(continued in Part 2 & 3 [Sorry, can only send 1 update an hour] but check out the Facebook link for the full update and pictures!)
 
https://www.facebook.com/thomasamy.pruett/posts/pfbid02WfDjjXhYA1dEN7Vgo22RTyNCCJAFn68nq3aDFAEk7dD6tXk1Q8fzQeS8ME6CJu8Wl?notif_id=1702604765156733&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif
 
 
 
 
September 20, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

Facebook Update 9/19/23: For those who haven't heard, Thomas was in the ER in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Turns out he has Covid again! He came home later that morning & rested all of Sunday. Yesterday he was mostly in bed, but got up around 2:30pm to finally eat something. While we were at the kitchen table he suddenly (mid-sentence) started grabbing his chest in pain & was struggling to breathe. He would have fallen out of his chair if I hadn't caught him. It was terrifying! I immediately called 911 & he was rushed by ambulance to OHSU. After 2 CT scans, an ekocardiogram, & numerous doctors coming to examine him, they've ruled out "the big, scary stuff." Praise the Lord for that! At this point they're attributing everything to Covid. The drugs they use for Covid can interact negatively with some of his heart meds, so they're switching him to Remdesivir & will monitor him, most likely, for the 3 days of IV treatments. They'll possibly send him home sooner if he responds well. Continued prayers are appreciated!

August 14, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore
PRUETT FAMILY UPDATE - AUGUST 11th, 2023 (Originally Updated on Facebook)
 
Let's start with HEALTH: first and most wonderfully, I've been out of the hospital, and have NOT returned save for appointments since I was discharged on June 26th- WAHOO! Considering that during the months of March through May I sometimes was only out of the hospital for 2 days before having to go back, almost 7 weeks without having to go back is AMAZING, praise God. The LVAD has been able to keep up with my symptoms MOST of the time - my ankles still swell a LITTLE (nothing compared to what they did), especially if I choose to have a 'cheat' day and ignore my sodium and fluid guidelines. But I also CAN have a cheat day every now and then and not go to the hospital for it, like what would happen before. My energy is SLOWLY returning, and several blood tests have revealed I've supremely low iron, which also may be contributing to my low energy levels. My doctors scheduled a 1000 mg infusion of iron on August 21st, and hopefully I'll be able to tell a difference. I also have to keep in mind that laying around in a hospital bed, along with steroids and several other meds I've been on, have contributed to weakened muscles. I've had several nurses say that a week in the hospital takes one whole month to recover from, steroids and meds notwithstanding. This last visit I was in the hospital for 5 weeks, so there you go. I'm trying to walk more, and I can tell my legs are getting stronger, and I can tell I'm not getting out of breath QUITE as quickly, though it still doesn't take much compared to pre-heart failure. Overall though, my physical condition is MUCH better than it was 8 weeks ago. The only unfortunate thing over the last few weeks is that my appetite has returned while my energy hasn't, thus I haven't been very active, & I've put on quite a bit of weight that I don't need haha, especially looking ahead to the heart transplant for which it would be beneficial if I was in the best shape possible going in. Ah well. I'm actually actively trying to lose a bit over the next month as I'll be first eligible to be listed September 9th. I'll also actively be trying to increase my stamina as I would like to not only enjoy some summer hiking with my family before summer is out, but am aiming to still try and backpack with my boys and partake of some the fall hunting seasons (not alone, before you ask 😉 ) , lest I be listed. We'll see.
As far as caring for the LVAD, Amy has been a phenomenal caregiver. We're down to every-other week appointments at OHSU to check-in with the LVAD team and my heart doctors, and dressing changes every three days. If you scroll through the pics, you can see an X-ray of everything I've got going on at the moment. The piece on my left side is the internal defibrillator, and you can just see the wire running to the probe along my sternum, which you can also see. Obviously you can see the heart pump/LVAD, and the driveline which runs inside me until it exits on my lower right abdomen, and then you can see the steel sutures they used to close my sternum. The biggest cause for concern, besides just continuing to not do too much while my (many) incisions heal is infection, which is why the dressing changes are so important. An infection along the driveline goes straight to my heart, and those kind of infections, so we've been told, are exceptionally hard to treat even with heavy antibiotics. So, Amy's exceptional care is very important! 
As I mentioned before, three months post-surgery, and the soonest I'll be eligible to be listed for a transplant is September 9th. We do plan on advocating to be listed ASAP and getting the transplant done, in no small part to 1. get my full quality of life back but then 2. Move on with our lives. Amy and I have commented often "how do people do this?", meaning suspend their lives while waiting for medical things. We're hoping to be transplanted soon, even though we're aware that generally transplants only last 15-20 years, and that I'll probably have to do this all again in my mid-50s, and possibly again even if the Lord grants me that long a life. Monday I'll have another appointment in which I'll be asking those questions to get a better idea of when the heart failure team plans to list me. 
FAMILY - We've had some great family events in the last few weeks. Mitchell and Matthew went to Bible camp at Yamhill for the first time mid-July and absolutely LOVED it. It was weird having them gone, but we tried to stay busy and all three girls got Mommy and Daddy dates - Mommy took the girls to a nail salon and got mani's and pedi's, and Daddy took the girls bowling and out for pizza. We've also both enjoyed seeing a few movies at the theater with Madison, and it's a special thing between her and I to go get boba. Most recently, as you may have seen, my side of the family made a wonderful trip from Illinois and Tennessee for a week - all three sisters and my mom flew out, and we finally got to meet our new baby nephew Carson, who we were planning on flying out to meet in June but obviously couldn't. We rented an Airbnb in the Tygh Valley in north/central Oregon, and it was an AMAZING week. We still have our vouchers when we had to cancel in June, so we'll head out there, Lord willing, post-transplant to Tennessee.
HOUSING - So many of you may have heard that through letters the Eugene Church of Christ sent out (THANK YOU), Eastside Church of Christ connected us with Columbia Christian Schools to offer us a house on their property so we can be within the required distance to OHSU to be listed and recover from a transplant. Well...that's true, but there's no other way to put it other than it's been a bit of a mess thus far. Read this as I intend it - I'm not complaining, just reporting how things have gone thus far. At first we were told we'd be able to move in at the end of June and have 6 months rent free, which turned into the property management group taking until this week to finally get the repair report back and begin necessary repairs, has turned into MAYBE we can move into HALF the house by the end of August (I'll explain in a moment) and we now will be paying $1500 a month, which in Portland is still an amazing deal for rent, but just wasn't what we were told initially. Half a house means the entire basement will not be usable while they finish electrical repairs, which will cut out 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and laundry. The property management group gives an estimate of 2 weeks - 2 months to get the basement repaired...
So we're obviously considering the issue. We're not willing to delay being listed due to housing - I'd move up alone to the Rood House on the OHSU campus or a hotel if necessary. But this whole process has been a ton of, we believe unintentional, misinformation, miscommunication, and moving forward "at the speed of molasses in February" as the elder from Eastside put it, who I might add works for Columbia but is also unimpressed at this whole process. . They SAY, as I said, we may be able to move in after August 25th - we'll see if that timeline holds.
WRAP UP -  We still could very much use prayers concerning our finances, the listing and heart transplant, and my continued recovery at whatever stage I'm at. There has been SO much stress over the last 8 months, and my amazing, wonderful, lovely Amy has been a rock star - I encourage you to please keep those Dutch Bros gift cards coming for her, and thank you for those who sent a few to her, as she deserves them at a bare minimum for all she's done to keep our family, and husband, going over the last 8 months. I truly believe she's Wonder Woman sometimes, and am amazed just how much she continues to love me even though all this medical drama, my admittedly sometimes fluctuating attitude about things, and all the uncertainty concerning our future. Please keep her in your prayers, and feel free to, if the mood strikes you, send her something special; she deserves it by far 🙂
Always feel free to call, text, or message us, we try to be available and we're always open book about things. Thank you all as always for your love, prayers, financial and emotional support over the last 8 months - we appreciate every one of you, and need all of you to sustain us towards an ever brightening future that we believe God is leading us towards. Love you all! - Thomas
Longer post with more pics at https://www.facebook.com/thomasamy.pruett/
 
April 20, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

So as many of you know I was in the hospital...again...but was discharged two days ago on April 18th. I apologize for not posting more this time but to be honest I was cranky this visit. Cranky that I was back in the hospital, cranky that I was there longer than anticipated, cranky that I can't control my symptoms due to a bad heart. Which brings us to the latest news. 

Tuesday the doctors did another heart cath and discovered my right side has high pressure and my left side is low, which is something they can't control with medication. Before discharge, two of my heart failure team doctors came in to talk to Amy and me. In short, they informed us I need...NEED...a heart transplant. They told us several times my heart isn't good, and the fact that my heart hasn't gotten better since diagnosis, in addition to the heart cath numbers  warrants a transplant. Crazy huh? Amy and I are still trying to wrap our heads around that fact.  It's a lot to process, and while I was indeed doing preliminary tests and such to clear the way for a transplant as an option, we were still thinking it might be years out. Apparently not. 

Transplants work on a 1-6 rating system. 1-3 are hospital bound patients, 4-6 are ambulatory and out in the community. A 1 gets a heart usually within 48 hours as its most critical, a 6 could wait years. My doctors say I'm definitely a  4, but one doctor said he even considered keeping me in the hospital and getting things done to bump me up to a 2. They said they still might do just that - the catch is I'd have to basically live in the ICU for 4-6 weeks to wait for a heart, and then it's at least 3 weeks recovery in the ICU after that. There are also rules about having to live within an hour of the hospital (we're 1.5-2 right now) we're having to work out, as well as a ton of assessments and tests to do. I feel like all I do is go to doctor appointments anymore haha. More true than I want to admit...

So there's fear, there's uncertainty, there's processing, there are unknowns...but in the center is still a good God, a redeeming Savior, and a solid family. Amy has been a rock through all this even through her own processing and stress, and the kids have handled everything we've had to throw at them with grace and patience. God teaches us perfection through trials, I guess I've got a long way to go :) But in all seriousness, this whole process has really grounded and forefronted at least my utter faith in a good God and risen Christ. I say this from my weakness in dealing with things like this, I couldn't go through this without my faith, and Amy reminds me of what walking by a strong faith looks like every day. 

Next week I have an appointment with my main heart failure doctor. They said the heart failure team will meet before that appointment and then she'll tell me what they decided about me at the appointment. So until then, we're continuing to try to get everything in order, we'll be trying to figure housing, applying for other benefits, and awaiting the news. The pic is from our Bandon getaway, and just reminds me to wait and deal with what's in front of me, which in the end is all we can do anyway. Feel free to ask any questions, we're an open book, and as always thanks for reading! We'll keep keeping you updated. - Thomas & Amy

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Summer Shore

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HelpForThePruettFamily
HelpForThePruettFamily
Summer Shore

Summer Shore

Corvallis, Oregon

Fundraising for

Thomas & Amy Pruett

Fundraising forThomas & Amy Pruett
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At the end of October, Thomas was admitted to the ICU for a trifecta of Covid-meaning he is one of the rare patients with covid attacking his gut, his lungs and his heart.

The Covid in the heart is the has led to  myocarditis and heart failure, which is complicated by the Covid induced pneumonia. He is thankfully responding well to treatment, but will have some permanent heart damage and is going to be in the hopspital for weeks, with a long slow recovery when he gets home. 

Prayers are greatly appreciated! Prayers for health obviously, but also finances. While Thomas will have his job waiting for him, it wil be weeks of physical therapy to be able to do regular activities of daily living and even longer before he will be well enough to return to work. 

While Thomas is in the hospital, his wife Amy is caring for their children and healing from covid herself. Your gift will help offset quickly rising medical bills and provide much needed support for their family while Thomas heals and recovers. 

Thank you for your prayers and for your support for the Pruett family💜

 

Fundraiser Updates (5)

April 10, 2024
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

Hello all! Been a little bit since my last update. You can copy and paste the following link to check out our latest news. Thanks and grace to you all! - Thomas 

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/ySDe2Ud8DivJgKbG/?mibextid=oFDknk

December 15, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore
PRUETT HEALTH & FAMILY UPDATE - December 14th, 2023
PART 1
So October to December between updates....yeaaah sorry, my bad, but in our defense, we actually were quite busy between October 18th & now 🙂 Halloween, 2 birthdays, Thanksgiving, many much medical appointments and yes, unfortunately too many ER visits make for 2 months to pass by in a flash! I'm sure you know the feeling. So, settle in and prepare for lots of pictures! So...Thomas' health or family update first? Let me ask my 6 year old editor, Moriah: she says family, so there we go!
 
The kiddos were super psyched for Halloween, and we were on it this year with having picked out our costumes a month ahead of time! This year we had Link & Zelda from Zelda, Kai from Ninjagos, and Westley & Buttercup from The Princess Bride. We were blessed to go to Salem with good friends and walk the neighborhood with their 5 kiddos as well, which was a great time. I struggled a bit to keep up, especially up hills, but everyone was very understanding and I made it, though I definitely felt it the next day or two. Soon after that was Madison's 21st birthday, which was a full day! Crepes for breakfast, a morning hike exploring Tabor Park (which was awesome and we want to go back every day!), ending with a fun cherry-themed party!
 
Crazy to think our oldest girl is a full-fledged 21 year old adult, but that's the way life goes! We're very proud of Madison - she's about to successfully complete her first term at Portland Community College for elementary education, and is signed up for her next term and looking forward to it! Her and I also have enjoyed making an occasional Boba our thing, and there's a TON of different Boba places to try out around where we live - we'll probably not get to them all! We're thankful that Amy & I both have a good, strong relationship with her right now, and that she's a very intentional great big sister to her other siblings - she even offers to watch them so Amy & I can go out on dates, which is a huge blessing! We're excited to see just where she goes!
 
Two days after Madison's birthday is Amy's! Because we have two parties right next to each other, Amy decided on a watermelon cake this year decorated with homemade whip and tons of different fruit. I have to admit, I absolutely despise watermelon haha, but I was super happy to attempt the cake she wanted - she was happy with it, and that's all that matters!
 
Just a few days after that we (finally) headed all the way down to Winston, Oregon to check out the Wildlife Safari. Amy had found an amazing deal on tickets that were super discounted through Groupon all the way back in June, just after my LVAD surgery. In truth, we kind of forgot about them until Amy checked them out and realized we only had 10 days left to use them before they expired! So it was a bit of a drive from Portland, but it was SO worth it! We went on what turned out to be an absolutely gorgeous day and all the animals were out and about! If you've never been, its super worth going - it's a beautiful place and even just driving through you see tons of different animals. Amy & the kids had gone earlier in the year when I was in the hospital with her parents so I had never been, and I was supremely impressed! Yay for discounts so families on a tight budget can actually still go do things!
 
Thanksgiving came up quicker than we realized, and this year...gulp...I handled the turkey instead of my culinarily trained wife. I did an apple cider brine for just over 12 hours, and then smoked it with pecan pellets. It turned out actually super delicious! The breasts were super juicy and flavorful, and the legs and wings, while slightly overdone, were still super good. My only critique of smoking whole birds that I've encountered is that the skin just doesn't get very crispy. I've read that I could throw it under the broiler right before serving to crisp it up, but hey, gives an excuse to experiment! We were blessed with Amy's sister and her husband coming up to join us. Amy's parents were supposed to but they were both sick unfortunately, but we still had a great meal together and shared awesome family time!
 
Something we usually do every year is cut down our own tree. Living in Corvallis and Springfield, this usually wasn't an issue, but the closest tree-cutting zone I could find was a solid two hour drive from our house. Amy and I would be game, but that's a long time for kids, and admittedly I don't travel the best myself these days. But one Sunday visiting Scappoose Church of Christ we saw a sign for a u-cut tree farm, so we decided to check it out. I highly recommend Marquardt Farms north of Scappoose. Family owned, super friendly and helpful, with complimentary snacks, drinks, etc., it was a great experience, especially on a whim. And we got a great looking tree we all took turns cutting down. We brought it home, set it up, and decorated it the next day, which is always a blast! The kids enjoyed laying under it and looking up, saying that it looked like looking through the trees at the stars on a clear night.
 
Something I also had saved up for was a treat for Amy I gave her on her birthday, and were able to go to said treat thanks to our oldest being willing to watch the other kids! On December 3rd I took Amy to see her favorite Christian band, For King and Country, for their Christmas concert series. It was an awesome concert, those guys are amazingly energetic performers with a great testimony, and just really and awesome show...and Little Drummer Boy was properly spectacular!
 
That leads us to now - eleven days before Christmas. The kids are looking forward to their Christmas break from school, but are rocking their schoolwork each day. Moriah's reading, and Melissa writes and knows all her letters and numbers. The boys are voracious readers - Mitchell finished the Harry Potter series in 6 weeks to the day - that's over a book a week in addition to school and family stuff! Matthew is right behind him in the series, and is going great with his braces. He just had an appointment and it looks like we'll be putting the top braces on in an appointment or two when his bottom teeth move a little farther back. Moriah has been super excited about our Elves on the Shelf's shenanigans this year, and has been particularly enthralled with the arrival of a stuffed reindeer to go along with the elves, but she can handle the reindeer - she's been sleeping with it 🙂 Melissa, as I said, has been writing wonderfully and is wonderfully sassy as always, though she's beginning to be more independent and do more things apart from mama and her big sister, which is nice to see. though she's still very attached 🙂 Amy & I are living lives blessed beyond measure, even with my health issues, and no amount of gratefulness or thanks to God could come close to how we feel when we see our family, kids, and just where God's taken us in this amazing life! Be grateful, friends!
(continued in Part 2 & 3 [Sorry, can only send 1 update an hour] but check out the Facebook link for the full update and pictures!)
 
https://www.facebook.com/thomasamy.pruett/posts/pfbid02WfDjjXhYA1dEN7Vgo22RTyNCCJAFn68nq3aDFAEk7dD6tXk1Q8fzQeS8ME6CJu8Wl?notif_id=1702604765156733&notif_t=feedback_reaction_generic&ref=notif
 
 
 
 
September 20, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

Facebook Update 9/19/23: For those who haven't heard, Thomas was in the ER in the wee hours of Saturday morning. Turns out he has Covid again! He came home later that morning & rested all of Sunday. Yesterday he was mostly in bed, but got up around 2:30pm to finally eat something. While we were at the kitchen table he suddenly (mid-sentence) started grabbing his chest in pain & was struggling to breathe. He would have fallen out of his chair if I hadn't caught him. It was terrifying! I immediately called 911 & he was rushed by ambulance to OHSU. After 2 CT scans, an ekocardiogram, & numerous doctors coming to examine him, they've ruled out "the big, scary stuff." Praise the Lord for that! At this point they're attributing everything to Covid. The drugs they use for Covid can interact negatively with some of his heart meds, so they're switching him to Remdesivir & will monitor him, most likely, for the 3 days of IV treatments. They'll possibly send him home sooner if he responds well. Continued prayers are appreciated!

August 14, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore
PRUETT FAMILY UPDATE - AUGUST 11th, 2023 (Originally Updated on Facebook)
 
Let's start with HEALTH: first and most wonderfully, I've been out of the hospital, and have NOT returned save for appointments since I was discharged on June 26th- WAHOO! Considering that during the months of March through May I sometimes was only out of the hospital for 2 days before having to go back, almost 7 weeks without having to go back is AMAZING, praise God. The LVAD has been able to keep up with my symptoms MOST of the time - my ankles still swell a LITTLE (nothing compared to what they did), especially if I choose to have a 'cheat' day and ignore my sodium and fluid guidelines. But I also CAN have a cheat day every now and then and not go to the hospital for it, like what would happen before. My energy is SLOWLY returning, and several blood tests have revealed I've supremely low iron, which also may be contributing to my low energy levels. My doctors scheduled a 1000 mg infusion of iron on August 21st, and hopefully I'll be able to tell a difference. I also have to keep in mind that laying around in a hospital bed, along with steroids and several other meds I've been on, have contributed to weakened muscles. I've had several nurses say that a week in the hospital takes one whole month to recover from, steroids and meds notwithstanding. This last visit I was in the hospital for 5 weeks, so there you go. I'm trying to walk more, and I can tell my legs are getting stronger, and I can tell I'm not getting out of breath QUITE as quickly, though it still doesn't take much compared to pre-heart failure. Overall though, my physical condition is MUCH better than it was 8 weeks ago. The only unfortunate thing over the last few weeks is that my appetite has returned while my energy hasn't, thus I haven't been very active, & I've put on quite a bit of weight that I don't need haha, especially looking ahead to the heart transplant for which it would be beneficial if I was in the best shape possible going in. Ah well. I'm actually actively trying to lose a bit over the next month as I'll be first eligible to be listed September 9th. I'll also actively be trying to increase my stamina as I would like to not only enjoy some summer hiking with my family before summer is out, but am aiming to still try and backpack with my boys and partake of some the fall hunting seasons (not alone, before you ask 😉 ) , lest I be listed. We'll see.
As far as caring for the LVAD, Amy has been a phenomenal caregiver. We're down to every-other week appointments at OHSU to check-in with the LVAD team and my heart doctors, and dressing changes every three days. If you scroll through the pics, you can see an X-ray of everything I've got going on at the moment. The piece on my left side is the internal defibrillator, and you can just see the wire running to the probe along my sternum, which you can also see. Obviously you can see the heart pump/LVAD, and the driveline which runs inside me until it exits on my lower right abdomen, and then you can see the steel sutures they used to close my sternum. The biggest cause for concern, besides just continuing to not do too much while my (many) incisions heal is infection, which is why the dressing changes are so important. An infection along the driveline goes straight to my heart, and those kind of infections, so we've been told, are exceptionally hard to treat even with heavy antibiotics. So, Amy's exceptional care is very important! 
As I mentioned before, three months post-surgery, and the soonest I'll be eligible to be listed for a transplant is September 9th. We do plan on advocating to be listed ASAP and getting the transplant done, in no small part to 1. get my full quality of life back but then 2. Move on with our lives. Amy and I have commented often "how do people do this?", meaning suspend their lives while waiting for medical things. We're hoping to be transplanted soon, even though we're aware that generally transplants only last 15-20 years, and that I'll probably have to do this all again in my mid-50s, and possibly again even if the Lord grants me that long a life. Monday I'll have another appointment in which I'll be asking those questions to get a better idea of when the heart failure team plans to list me. 
FAMILY - We've had some great family events in the last few weeks. Mitchell and Matthew went to Bible camp at Yamhill for the first time mid-July and absolutely LOVED it. It was weird having them gone, but we tried to stay busy and all three girls got Mommy and Daddy dates - Mommy took the girls to a nail salon and got mani's and pedi's, and Daddy took the girls bowling and out for pizza. We've also both enjoyed seeing a few movies at the theater with Madison, and it's a special thing between her and I to go get boba. Most recently, as you may have seen, my side of the family made a wonderful trip from Illinois and Tennessee for a week - all three sisters and my mom flew out, and we finally got to meet our new baby nephew Carson, who we were planning on flying out to meet in June but obviously couldn't. We rented an Airbnb in the Tygh Valley in north/central Oregon, and it was an AMAZING week. We still have our vouchers when we had to cancel in June, so we'll head out there, Lord willing, post-transplant to Tennessee.
HOUSING - So many of you may have heard that through letters the Eugene Church of Christ sent out (THANK YOU), Eastside Church of Christ connected us with Columbia Christian Schools to offer us a house on their property so we can be within the required distance to OHSU to be listed and recover from a transplant. Well...that's true, but there's no other way to put it other than it's been a bit of a mess thus far. Read this as I intend it - I'm not complaining, just reporting how things have gone thus far. At first we were told we'd be able to move in at the end of June and have 6 months rent free, which turned into the property management group taking until this week to finally get the repair report back and begin necessary repairs, has turned into MAYBE we can move into HALF the house by the end of August (I'll explain in a moment) and we now will be paying $1500 a month, which in Portland is still an amazing deal for rent, but just wasn't what we were told initially. Half a house means the entire basement will not be usable while they finish electrical repairs, which will cut out 2 bedrooms, a bathroom, and laundry. The property management group gives an estimate of 2 weeks - 2 months to get the basement repaired...
So we're obviously considering the issue. We're not willing to delay being listed due to housing - I'd move up alone to the Rood House on the OHSU campus or a hotel if necessary. But this whole process has been a ton of, we believe unintentional, misinformation, miscommunication, and moving forward "at the speed of molasses in February" as the elder from Eastside put it, who I might add works for Columbia but is also unimpressed at this whole process. . They SAY, as I said, we may be able to move in after August 25th - we'll see if that timeline holds.
WRAP UP -  We still could very much use prayers concerning our finances, the listing and heart transplant, and my continued recovery at whatever stage I'm at. There has been SO much stress over the last 8 months, and my amazing, wonderful, lovely Amy has been a rock star - I encourage you to please keep those Dutch Bros gift cards coming for her, and thank you for those who sent a few to her, as she deserves them at a bare minimum for all she's done to keep our family, and husband, going over the last 8 months. I truly believe she's Wonder Woman sometimes, and am amazed just how much she continues to love me even though all this medical drama, my admittedly sometimes fluctuating attitude about things, and all the uncertainty concerning our future. Please keep her in your prayers, and feel free to, if the mood strikes you, send her something special; she deserves it by far 🙂
Always feel free to call, text, or message us, we try to be available and we're always open book about things. Thank you all as always for your love, prayers, financial and emotional support over the last 8 months - we appreciate every one of you, and need all of you to sustain us towards an ever brightening future that we believe God is leading us towards. Love you all! - Thomas
Longer post with more pics at https://www.facebook.com/thomasamy.pruett/
 
April 20, 2023
Summer Shore
Summer Shore

So as many of you know I was in the hospital...again...but was discharged two days ago on April 18th. I apologize for not posting more this time but to be honest I was cranky this visit. Cranky that I was back in the hospital, cranky that I was there longer than anticipated, cranky that I can't control my symptoms due to a bad heart. Which brings us to the latest news. 

Tuesday the doctors did another heart cath and discovered my right side has high pressure and my left side is low, which is something they can't control with medication. Before discharge, two of my heart failure team doctors came in to talk to Amy and me. In short, they informed us I need...NEED...a heart transplant. They told us several times my heart isn't good, and the fact that my heart hasn't gotten better since diagnosis, in addition to the heart cath numbers  warrants a transplant. Crazy huh? Amy and I are still trying to wrap our heads around that fact.  It's a lot to process, and while I was indeed doing preliminary tests and such to clear the way for a transplant as an option, we were still thinking it might be years out. Apparently not. 

Transplants work on a 1-6 rating system. 1-3 are hospital bound patients, 4-6 are ambulatory and out in the community. A 1 gets a heart usually within 48 hours as its most critical, a 6 could wait years. My doctors say I'm definitely a  4, but one doctor said he even considered keeping me in the hospital and getting things done to bump me up to a 2. They said they still might do just that - the catch is I'd have to basically live in the ICU for 4-6 weeks to wait for a heart, and then it's at least 3 weeks recovery in the ICU after that. There are also rules about having to live within an hour of the hospital (we're 1.5-2 right now) we're having to work out, as well as a ton of assessments and tests to do. I feel like all I do is go to doctor appointments anymore haha. More true than I want to admit...

So there's fear, there's uncertainty, there's processing, there are unknowns...but in the center is still a good God, a redeeming Savior, and a solid family. Amy has been a rock through all this even through her own processing and stress, and the kids have handled everything we've had to throw at them with grace and patience. God teaches us perfection through trials, I guess I've got a long way to go :) But in all seriousness, this whole process has really grounded and forefronted at least my utter faith in a good God and risen Christ. I say this from my weakness in dealing with things like this, I couldn't go through this without my faith, and Amy reminds me of what walking by a strong faith looks like every day. 

Next week I have an appointment with my main heart failure doctor. They said the heart failure team will meet before that appointment and then she'll tell me what they decided about me at the appointment. So until then, we're continuing to try to get everything in order, we'll be trying to figure housing, applying for other benefits, and awaiting the news. The pic is from our Bandon getaway, and just reminds me to wait and deal with what's in front of me, which in the end is all we can do anyway. Feel free to ask any questions, we're an open book, and as always thanks for reading! We'll keep keeping you updated. - Thomas & Amy

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