Know your Drive Line Care.

Follow the same techniques that the nurses teach you at the hospital, I only did it a total of 3 times while he was in the hospital. The "Hands On" test they give you are great. They WILL NOT let you, as a caregiver go home not knowing fully what to do.
The most important thing is preventing infections. 
Infections are the number one complication in having an LVAD.  I was so scared of something happening, but all you can do is be is careful and keep the field sterile.
Take a good look at the drive line exit site at least once a day. We do the drive line care at the same time every night. We choose to do this once the kids were asleep, so there are no interruptions.   While you are during the drive line care look for signs of infection like:

• Redness
• Swelling           
• Drainage (blood or pus)
• New drainage where there was not any before
• Foul odor
• Increased warmth at the site
• Temperature > 100° F

When I finish puting the tape over the Gauze, I still date it, as they did in the hospital, and I always draw or write something like:



I only did this one once..lol


I love the time was have together during the drive line care, it give us time to slow down and talk about our day !