Everyone's experience is different, but here's what you can expect immediately after surgery:
-You will wake up in a bit of a fog. Time means nothing for the first few hours. You will be aware of things going on around you, but things will be a bit hazy.
-You may notice a lot of tubes, beeping, noise from other patients, etc. ICU is not a peaceful place. It's noisy and alien. You will have 2-3 chest drainage tubes in your abdomen. These are to unload the excess fluids. They will carefully monitor your drainage and make sure you aren't retaining fluid. You may have a couple of wires sticking out of there also. These are for an external pacemaker which is often used until your heart has proven entirely stable. You might have a ventilator down your throat to help you breathe. More on this later. You will have a cathedar also, but may not even know it's there. Of course, there will also be an IV to replace fluids and administer anything else they might want to give you. You will be very pale and this may freak your visitors out a little. The colour comes back quickly.
-You will wake with the thirst of all thirsts. They won't let you drink because we have a tendency to vomit in those first waking hours. Usually, they will give you a sip now and then and some crushed ice. They will swab your mouth a bit to leave it with the impression that you've had something to drink.
-Sometimes you wake up with the breathing tube still in. If this happens, it is important not to fight it. It is your friend. The ventilator is there to ensure your body is getting the O2 it needs until you are fully stablized. It's a bit of a task to curb your involuntary response to breathe and let it do the work, but do your best to relax and you'll be fine. They will pull the tube within an hour or two of your waking up. If you fight the tube, your stomach could get some air in it, which creates a painful gas bubble. If this happens, they will stick a tube into your stomach to release the air. It's uncomfortably, but not like a major problem or anything.
-Xray: They will Xray you a few times. To do this, they will have to move you around a little. Don't worry. They do it while you are lying down. It's uncomfortable, but it's not that bad.
-You may find yourself surprised that it is not as painful as you thought it would be. It's no cakewalk, but it's not as excrutiating as we think going in.
-After a few hours of stability in ICU, they will sit you up. When I was in for my first one, they let me shave myself. It was nice to sit up and get out of bed and being able to do something felt good because it killed the boredom a bit.
-At some point they will remove your cathedar. Not overly painful. In fact you may not realize it's even there.
-After 8-24 hours (usually less than 10), they will move you out of ICU to your room. You will feel better because it will be much quieter.
-At some point in ICU or afterward, they will start pulling tubes out of you. The cathedar is no problem. The wires from the pacemaker give you a little pinch on the way out, but nothing too serious. The ventilator is easy too. You will feel great after it's out of your throat. You will have a sore throat for a few days. The chest tubes range from "not too bad" to "excrutiating". I had two operations. When they pulled the chest tubes after the first one, I nearly passed out. Not enough painkiller and a slowey who never heard that ripping a bandaid off fast is the best way. The second time hurt, but was not unbearable.
-Once you get those chest drainage tubes out (1-3 days after surgery), you will feel waaaaaaay better. Dragging those beasts around is not painful, but uncomfortable because they pull downward when you are trying to walk.
-There are two things you must do to get better quickly. Walk. Walk more than they recommend. Sitting up, standing and walking keeps fluids at bay from your lungs. The more you walk (within reason, don't tire yourself out too much - you need to build your strength too) the quicker you will recover. The other thing is your breathing exercises. They usually give you a spirometer, which is a funny tube thing with balls in it. You blow out to keep the balls afloat. It's a chore, but it is very important for your lungs too.
-You will have trouble sleeping. Possibly for a few weeks. This is normal. Your body is loaded with drugs and things it is not used to processing. This stuff takes months to get out of your system. You may notice your hair gets super-dry. I even had my curls go straight for about a year. Never did go back quite the same.
-Your memory may play tricks on you for several months. You may not remember certain words. Don't be alarmed. This is due to being on the heart-lung machine. It beats up some of our cells and it takes a while to recover.
-You may find yourself on an emotional roller coaster for a few months. You might cry for no reason; be at peace and glad to be alive and angry as hell - all within an hour. This is normal. It will gradually go away, but it's important for your caregivers to expect a little bit of unusual behaviour from you.
-There are a lot of other things pertaining to recovery over the next few weeks, but this captures some of the things you can expect immediately upon waking.
Hope this helps. You are going to do just fine.
Keep well.
Kev
, may God watch over you and guide the surgeons hands - may you have a speedy recovery. As you know, ALL here on this site will be thinking and praying for you on the day of your surgery.
