Cold all the time.

[Chuck C]

The being cold all the time has passed and the night sweats seem to be getting better.

Glad to hear this! Thanks for the update.

 

[3mm]

they seem to be just waiting for my weight to get back to normal

Did you need to lose weight or gain weight before release? I went into surgery at 139 lbs on a 5 ft 6 in frame, and I came out at 131 lbs. 3 months after release I finally got back to 137 lbs.

 

[V__]

Did you need to lose weight or gain weight before release? I went into surgery at 139 lbs on a 5 ft 6 in frame, and I came out at 131 lbs. 3 months after release I finally got back to 137 lbs.

Sounds like you had an unusual weight loss... I gained weight b/c of the surgery and was told that:
- Everybody gains 14-16 lb
- It's mostly "water weight"
- In principle you can just "walk it off" in 3 weeks or so. But it's a risk factor for pneumonia.

So they preferred to reduce it back to normal before discharge (with lasic, while monitoring the liquid intake and outtake).
They got me very close to the pre-surgery weight before the release, within 1-2 lbs.

I do remember the hands and feet looking slightly "puffy" for the first day or two

Knowing what I know now, I would not have drunk the whole jar of water while in the ICU. That only added even more liquid to the system. (Maybe would've only drank half .)

 

[pellicle]

Knowing what I know now, I would not have drunk the whole jar of water while in the ICU

in my ICU experience, it was a sponge only (1974 and you squeezed it into your mouth), small crushed ice cubes in 1992 and a very small plastic cup along side the small ice cubes in 2011.

 

[slipkid]

Did you need to lose weight or gain weight before release? I went into surgery at 139 lbs on a 5 ft 6 in frame, and I came out at 131 lbs. 3 months after release I finally got back to 137 lbs.

I lost about 20 pounds during my hospital stay but I put it back on in about 3 months. I wasn't just a AVR patient though, I also had a heart attack and double bypass at the same time (which led to them also replacing my aortic valve). Think I was in the hospital about 2 weeks but don't recall exactly.