July 23rd: My Olympics start sooner :-)

My opening ceremony happens on July 23rd, and I hope to be in some senses by Olympics opening ceremony (July 26th)
My event is Bentall - a multi-sport (Aortic root, ascending aorta, mechanical On-X aortic valve).

I can't thank this community enough which has provided tremendous support and valuable information over the last MANY years.

Thank you all from the bottom of my heart

We'll see you on the other side. I have no doubt you will watch the opening ceremonies.

Go for the gold!!

All the best for tomorrow, tjay!
The winning line is all yours.

Wishing you the best, tomorrow! Had the same procedure done 4-weeks ago. You've got this, keep us updated and go for the gold .

I had a Bentall procedure (with bovine tissue valve) in Oct and have recovered well. You got this! I look forward to hearing from you as you recover!

Procedure went great. In ICU now

Great news, tjay! Welcome to the other side.
Good recovery thoughts coming your way.
Onwards.

tjay said:

Procedure went great. In ICU now

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Fantastic news!! The stressful part is over! Now get up, do some walking, do more walking, and let the road to recovery begin! Keep us in the loop

Yes, glad to be over with. Taking baby steps in ICU but doing great. Will send details in a week.

PS: Looking forward to watching Olympics opening ceremony at 10:30 am PST tomorrow

tjay said:

Procedure went great. In ICU now

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Good for you. I told you that you would see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics!!

dick0236 said:

Good for you. I told you that you would see the opening ceremonies of the Olympics!!

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Yes you did. You were right on the mark

Day 5 post-op report

Smooth sailing first 4 days. I’ve been walking more than they wanted, surprised them with just about everything. One of my tubes were yanked out on Day 3, and moved to regular room.

Kept walking more. This morning Day 5, their plan was to take out chest wires and then the second tube few hours later (drainage had subsided quite a bit on Day 4). When the nurse had just started working on the first suture (not even pulling anything just yet), my heart raced from 80-85 bpm (which has been my baseline post surgery) to 130 for 2-3 seconds. The nurse stopped. May be I got too excited not sure.

Something similar happened 5-10 mins later again when another nurse was taking an IV line out from my right wrist.

They did an EKG and while they’re saying it’s ok, I read on the EKG report on my chart and it says significant change since yesterday (when it was in sinus rhythm).

They’re infusing me with more calcium, potassium and magnesium, saying my electrolytes are off and heart muscle needs to relax.

They will retry again in the next day or two depending on the results.

So a small bump just when I thought I would be set free

tjay said:

So a small bump just when I thought I would be set free

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I'm sorry to hear about this small issue, but you'll be fine. The electrical system takes time to settle down because the scarring around the newly installed valve disrupts the electrical wiring. A standard risk of heart surgery.

tjay said:

So a small bump just when I thought I would be set free

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As frustrating as it is, better to he there...

This morning, it’s back in sinus rhythm.
Will keep posted.

Update:

They did CT scan today since aorta was involved. Looks like my left main coronary artery is showing somewhat pinched. I didn’t ask if they pinched it while reinserting it into ascending aorta after its replacement.

They will do an angiogram tomorrow to confirm and potentially insert stent if that’s the case.

My coronaries had been wide open otherwise prior to the surgery :-(

Let’s continue to watch this movie

Welcome to the other side Tjay and thanks for the updates.

Hoping for a positive resolution to the main coronary artery issue.

tjay said:

I didn’t ask if they pinched it while reinserting it into ascending aorta after its replacement.

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there are some things you know you can't ask, and some things you don't need to ask to know.

I think this one is both

All and everything good now. Feel great.

Only thing holding me from going home is the INR level which is stuck at 1.3. @pellicle and @ncw3642 please stand by for pertaining information. Your expertise and recent experience respectively will be very useful. Let me know if you want me to start a new thread on the Post Op Forum, or this one itself suffices.

They’ll probably keep me here another day and inject higher concentration of Heparin. Then I heard them discuss an injectable which I can do myself at home tomorrow onwards.

Will share more shortly.