F
fisher6476
Here are a few details as I remember them. Out of surgey arround !!:00 AM of Friday. Tube out around 7:30 PM Friday Eve.
I remember telling the surgeon pripr to operation that having that tube reomoved was important to me. He promised it would be out before it ws a problem. Anyhow I remember thinking that 7:30 PM seemed like too long (although because of what I learned here it was not unmanageable). I vaguely remember someone talking about low blood pressure for a while post op and yhay is why the tube was in so long. Any one have input?
Remember talking to surgeon either Fri. Nite or Sat morning and him saying that everything went very well. He replaced the aortic valve (which ws much worse than he expected it to be. We used Carpentier Edwards Bovine Pericardial Valve. Then repaired AAA with Dacron Tube.
I mentioned before that I had chosen Dr David Brown, and Med Central Hospital here in Mansfield, Ohio. Both are state of the art as far as I am concerned. The Heart Ward is a rectangle with 10 private rooms that surround the nurses station. Also the same room you are moved to immediately post op as your cicu also then becomes your step down room and evetually you regular room prior to going home. I liked the setup and felt I great after surgical care. On Saturday one of the things that surprised me was how BAD I felt and how the littlest exertion would cause me to feel like I was going to pass out.
I don't know what kind of details you would like, but I woulld bhe happy to answer any and all questions in the meantime.
Someone asked me what the pads were that they put on my bottocks on the operating table. I am pretty sure that they told me these would ground me to the table. I assumes that was so probes and maybe the paddles they use to restart the heart if neccessary would work properly but I have no idea if that is correct. By the (sorry if I am rambling a little bit) Friday was surgery, Saturday all hooked up, Sunday chest tubes and catheter out THANK GOODNESS... Sunday Suppository for bowel movement (how come no one warned me about this?) Monday wires for pacemaker removed (I don't recall a lot of warniing about the chest tubes and wires being removed .. JEEEZE that smarted.) Tuesday Morning Staples removed and home Tuesday afternoon. I guess that sounds pretty uneventful and taht is ok with me.
Since being home (actually right after going off morphine and being put on tylenol 3 with codene developed Very dry and sore throat. It got so bad at night that if I dozed off i would get so dry that my throat would stick togetjer, could not breathe and would wake up and have to drink water. Finally stayed off the tylenol 3 last night and had a much better time with throat, although mabe a bit painfull. I am trying extra strength tylenol today and tonite and will see how it goes.
Med Central Hospital set up a home nurse to come in and check on me Thurs. She said all looked good, that she would take blood sample and send off to lab for coumadin adj. Got call back and wa s told to go from 5mg to 6 mg, that nurse would come back Sunday and draw blood and see where we were. In the meantime I guess I had just as so so day today (mostly psycholigical I think) amd when the home health nurse called to confirm appointment for Sunday my wife tells her in passing that I did not have as good a day today as i did Yestrday. Lo and Behold about an hour later (6:30 PM ) on a Saturday night, DR. David Brown, my surgeon, called me here at home to tell me he had heard I wasn't having a good day and wanted to know what was wrong. After a few ecouraging words he said " look, for the next six weeks or so you do not have a family doctor, a cardiologist, a dentist or any one else. No one is more concerned about you than I am so whatever you need or if you have questions or problems I want and need to know about them first, so call me 24hrs/7days. " I am beginning to think I got my moneys worth!
Any way I am rambling a little I think. Sorry. I think someone said my brain might take a week or two to clear all the fog.
See Ya Soon'
Steve
I remember telling the surgeon pripr to operation that having that tube reomoved was important to me. He promised it would be out before it ws a problem. Anyhow I remember thinking that 7:30 PM seemed like too long (although because of what I learned here it was not unmanageable). I vaguely remember someone talking about low blood pressure for a while post op and yhay is why the tube was in so long. Any one have input?
Remember talking to surgeon either Fri. Nite or Sat morning and him saying that everything went very well. He replaced the aortic valve (which ws much worse than he expected it to be. We used Carpentier Edwards Bovine Pericardial Valve. Then repaired AAA with Dacron Tube.
I mentioned before that I had chosen Dr David Brown, and Med Central Hospital here in Mansfield, Ohio. Both are state of the art as far as I am concerned. The Heart Ward is a rectangle with 10 private rooms that surround the nurses station. Also the same room you are moved to immediately post op as your cicu also then becomes your step down room and evetually you regular room prior to going home. I liked the setup and felt I great after surgical care. On Saturday one of the things that surprised me was how BAD I felt and how the littlest exertion would cause me to feel like I was going to pass out.
I don't know what kind of details you would like, but I woulld bhe happy to answer any and all questions in the meantime.
Someone asked me what the pads were that they put on my bottocks on the operating table. I am pretty sure that they told me these would ground me to the table. I assumes that was so probes and maybe the paddles they use to restart the heart if neccessary would work properly but I have no idea if that is correct. By the (sorry if I am rambling a little bit) Friday was surgery, Saturday all hooked up, Sunday chest tubes and catheter out THANK GOODNESS... Sunday Suppository for bowel movement (how come no one warned me about this?) Monday wires for pacemaker removed (I don't recall a lot of warniing about the chest tubes and wires being removed .. JEEEZE that smarted.) Tuesday Morning Staples removed and home Tuesday afternoon. I guess that sounds pretty uneventful and taht is ok with me.
Since being home (actually right after going off morphine and being put on tylenol 3 with codene developed Very dry and sore throat. It got so bad at night that if I dozed off i would get so dry that my throat would stick togetjer, could not breathe and would wake up and have to drink water. Finally stayed off the tylenol 3 last night and had a much better time with throat, although mabe a bit painfull. I am trying extra strength tylenol today and tonite and will see how it goes.
Med Central Hospital set up a home nurse to come in and check on me Thurs. She said all looked good, that she would take blood sample and send off to lab for coumadin adj. Got call back and wa s told to go from 5mg to 6 mg, that nurse would come back Sunday and draw blood and see where we were. In the meantime I guess I had just as so so day today (mostly psycholigical I think) amd when the home health nurse called to confirm appointment for Sunday my wife tells her in passing that I did not have as good a day today as i did Yestrday. Lo and Behold about an hour later (6:30 PM ) on a Saturday night, DR. David Brown, my surgeon, called me here at home to tell me he had heard I wasn't having a good day and wanted to know what was wrong. After a few ecouraging words he said " look, for the next six weeks or so you do not have a family doctor, a cardiologist, a dentist or any one else. No one is more concerned about you than I am so whatever you need or if you have questions or problems I want and need to know about them first, so call me 24hrs/7days. " I am beginning to think I got my moneys worth!
Any way I am rambling a little I think. Sorry. I think someone said my brain might take a week or two to clear all the fog.
See Ya Soon'
Steve
She told me everything seemed to be ok and released my care to my Cardiologist. I did see one of his associates when I had to go back in the hospital 5weeks post op. Even then, they only reviewed my test results and not seeing anything that might require surgery, defered to my Cardiologist for my treatment.
