Tori 34
Member
Hello everyone!
I'm two weeks post surgery tomorrow and thought I would post my account of my experience. I had AVR at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK. I was admitted to hospital the day before surgery, for pre-op tests. I just had an ECG, blood test and test for MRSA, so given I went in at 11am, I spent most of the day hanging around worrying. I met all the surgical team post 7pm the day before surgery, and all I could think was, please all of you, go home and sleep!
WED 7th: The hour before surgery was pretty hideous, because I was consumed with fear. As most people here have advised, the waiting is the hardest part, and it has very much been my experience. I went for a strategic cry in the loo, and a nurse gave me a hug! As standard practice I was given temazepam two hours before surgery, and was wheeled down to theatre at 8am. I felt very calm by this stage, thanks to the medication. Surgery went as planned and finished at shortly before 1pm. My husband was advised to come to the hospital for 4pm at which stage they intended for me to be more lucid. Unfortunately post surgery I continued to bleed, and the surgical team elected for me to be kept under pending a decision on the way forward. A blood platelet transfusion was given to me, but I continued to bleed and my husband was advised to leave the hospital at around 7pm, as the doctors were clear they were not going to be bringing me round soon. He was advised if I didn't stop bleeding before midnight I would be taken back down to theatre for them to open me up again to find out what was happening. By 11pm, the bleeding had stopped. Thankfully I was none the wiser, though I think my poor husband has aged about 10 years.
THURS 8TH: I came round in the early hours of the morning, in Intensive Care, on a ventilator. I'm so lucky to have found this site, because it had been mentioned here that this happens from time to time, so I think that in my head there was a vague, drug-addled understanding of what was going on when I stirred. It wasn't a scary experience at all, I felt very safe. I recall asking for a pen and paper. I don't recall that I then proceeded to write my husband's initial again and again and draw hearts around it, but the nurse was so entertained she kept the piece of my paper to show him when he came to the hospital! I remember my husband being at the hospital later that day, and know that the nurses plaited my hair for me. I'm told I sat in a chair for a few hours but i have no memory of it. At 5pm, 28 hours after surgery I left Intensive Care for the High Dependency Unit
FRI 9TH: Again, I can't recall much to the 2nd day after surgery. I suspect morphine doesn't help. The morphine kept the pain at bay, but I was repeatedly sick. Whilst the anti-sickness drugs worked their magic, I felt very disoriented all day. I kept on waking up thinking I must have been asleep for hours, and then I'd look at the time and see that I'd had my eyes shut for 10 minutes. It was very difficult to find a comfortable position, but the nurses really do everything they can to help. The pacing wire and chest tubes came out late on in the afternoon. I had dreaded this part, and I can assure you I have a very low pain threshold, but it proved to be very manageable. Yes, it hurts, but for about 5 seconds. I was made to walk before being able transfer to the standard ward, and I really wasn't very stoic about it. Even being wheeled down for an x-ray the whole world felt like it was spinning and my chest felt so tight. Nonetheless I must have been improving well as I moved to the standard ward in the early evening.
SAT 10TH: X-rays showed that I had a lot of fluid on my lungs and I was given breathing exercises. I built up my confidence with walking, although it really was just a shuffle to the loo. Thank goodness for the water tablets they were giving me to address the 10lb weight gain, it forced me up and about. My neck line was removed - heaven! I think having then been clear of morphine for 24 hours did me the power of good. I managed a couple of mouthful of foods, and downed water like nothing on earth !
SUN 11TH: Canula removed and I was free to move around! Shower was heaven, even though it took me an hour to complete! I had little sit downs in between shampooing and conditioning my hair! I even put a nice dress on and put some make up on ready for my husband's visit. I can't get over the difference in the way I felt between the afternoon of Day 3 to the afternoon of Day 5. The recovery was just incredible. It felt good to be able to reassure a patient who was in pain, who had the op two days before me, that it really does get better extremely quickly. X-rays showed that the fluid had just about done fro my lungs and the only issue was that their was fluid around my heart, slightly above the amount they'd expect to see.
MON 12TH: I felt so much better, when the porter(s) came to take me for an echo or an ECG, I told them that I was able to walk there myself. The doctors confirmed that they would discharge me the following day. So, 6 days post surgery I went home.
So, I've now been home just shy of a week. I was given paracetemol and codeine to take every 6 hours, but I've already been able to drop the codeine, and just take the paracetemol every 8 hours or so. I walk for a minimum of half an hour a day, and today I even managed to push my two year old son in his buggy during that time - though I was a bit out of breath afterwards! I tire very quickly, and do have a racing heart beat about once a day, but I know its normal at this stage.
Good luck to any of you reading that have the surgery ahead of you. One thing that I hope might help you is that I certainly won't be looking back on the surgery and my time in hospital with any regret - it has been a tremendously positive experience.
I'm two weeks post surgery tomorrow and thought I would post my account of my experience. I had AVR at the Royal Brompton Hospital in London, UK. I was admitted to hospital the day before surgery, for pre-op tests. I just had an ECG, blood test and test for MRSA, so given I went in at 11am, I spent most of the day hanging around worrying. I met all the surgical team post 7pm the day before surgery, and all I could think was, please all of you, go home and sleep!
WED 7th: The hour before surgery was pretty hideous, because I was consumed with fear. As most people here have advised, the waiting is the hardest part, and it has very much been my experience. I went for a strategic cry in the loo, and a nurse gave me a hug! As standard practice I was given temazepam two hours before surgery, and was wheeled down to theatre at 8am. I felt very calm by this stage, thanks to the medication. Surgery went as planned and finished at shortly before 1pm. My husband was advised to come to the hospital for 4pm at which stage they intended for me to be more lucid. Unfortunately post surgery I continued to bleed, and the surgical team elected for me to be kept under pending a decision on the way forward. A blood platelet transfusion was given to me, but I continued to bleed and my husband was advised to leave the hospital at around 7pm, as the doctors were clear they were not going to be bringing me round soon. He was advised if I didn't stop bleeding before midnight I would be taken back down to theatre for them to open me up again to find out what was happening. By 11pm, the bleeding had stopped. Thankfully I was none the wiser, though I think my poor husband has aged about 10 years.
THURS 8TH: I came round in the early hours of the morning, in Intensive Care, on a ventilator. I'm so lucky to have found this site, because it had been mentioned here that this happens from time to time, so I think that in my head there was a vague, drug-addled understanding of what was going on when I stirred. It wasn't a scary experience at all, I felt very safe. I recall asking for a pen and paper. I don't recall that I then proceeded to write my husband's initial again and again and draw hearts around it, but the nurse was so entertained she kept the piece of my paper to show him when he came to the hospital! I remember my husband being at the hospital later that day, and know that the nurses plaited my hair for me. I'm told I sat in a chair for a few hours but i have no memory of it. At 5pm, 28 hours after surgery I left Intensive Care for the High Dependency Unit
FRI 9TH: Again, I can't recall much to the 2nd day after surgery. I suspect morphine doesn't help. The morphine kept the pain at bay, but I was repeatedly sick. Whilst the anti-sickness drugs worked their magic, I felt very disoriented all day. I kept on waking up thinking I must have been asleep for hours, and then I'd look at the time and see that I'd had my eyes shut for 10 minutes. It was very difficult to find a comfortable position, but the nurses really do everything they can to help. The pacing wire and chest tubes came out late on in the afternoon. I had dreaded this part, and I can assure you I have a very low pain threshold, but it proved to be very manageable. Yes, it hurts, but for about 5 seconds. I was made to walk before being able transfer to the standard ward, and I really wasn't very stoic about it. Even being wheeled down for an x-ray the whole world felt like it was spinning and my chest felt so tight. Nonetheless I must have been improving well as I moved to the standard ward in the early evening.
SAT 10TH: X-rays showed that I had a lot of fluid on my lungs and I was given breathing exercises. I built up my confidence with walking, although it really was just a shuffle to the loo. Thank goodness for the water tablets they were giving me to address the 10lb weight gain, it forced me up and about. My neck line was removed - heaven! I think having then been clear of morphine for 24 hours did me the power of good. I managed a couple of mouthful of foods, and downed water like nothing on earth !
SUN 11TH: Canula removed and I was free to move around! Shower was heaven, even though it took me an hour to complete! I had little sit downs in between shampooing and conditioning my hair! I even put a nice dress on and put some make up on ready for my husband's visit. I can't get over the difference in the way I felt between the afternoon of Day 3 to the afternoon of Day 5. The recovery was just incredible. It felt good to be able to reassure a patient who was in pain, who had the op two days before me, that it really does get better extremely quickly. X-rays showed that the fluid had just about done fro my lungs and the only issue was that their was fluid around my heart, slightly above the amount they'd expect to see.
MON 12TH: I felt so much better, when the porter(s) came to take me for an echo or an ECG, I told them that I was able to walk there myself. The doctors confirmed that they would discharge me the following day. So, 6 days post surgery I went home.
So, I've now been home just shy of a week. I was given paracetemol and codeine to take every 6 hours, but I've already been able to drop the codeine, and just take the paracetemol every 8 hours or so. I walk for a minimum of half an hour a day, and today I even managed to push my two year old son in his buggy during that time - though I was a bit out of breath afterwards! I tire very quickly, and do have a racing heart beat about once a day, but I know its normal at this stage.
Good luck to any of you reading that have the surgery ahead of you. One thing that I hope might help you is that I certainly won't be looking back on the surgery and my time in hospital with any regret - it has been a tremendously positive experience.
