Heather Anne
Well-known member
I posted this in the post-op thread, but I don't know how often those in the waiting room visit that thread, so I hope you don't mind if I also post it here:
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I'm home, wearing cozy pajamas after the best shower EVER, and I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to add a few details about my surgical experience for those yet to go through it. I found this kind of post very helpful when I was in the waiting room, so now I'm paying it....backward?
DAY ONE: This was Surgery Day, so I got up at 5 and my husband drove me into San Francisco for my 6 AM roll call. Everything went very smoothly despite the pre-op staging area resembling a bus station, and I was wheeled into the OR at 7:30. I wasn't as nervous as I'd thought I would be; my primary emotion was relief that the day had come and I would get my heart fixed at last.
I woke up in the ICU at 3PM with the breathing tube still in. My husband was there, and he told me that the surgeon had been surprised by how bad my valve looked given my lack of significant symptoms, and thought I'd notice a big difference. I was more about noticing the breathing tube at that moment, which I wanted out immediately. Although it wasn't claustrophobic, as I'd feared, and it was a lot smaller than I'd expected, there was still some gagging and flailing as they sat me up to cough it out that was, at least, over quickly. For those who fear the breathing tube, I will say that if you do wake up with it still in, it won't feel that bad (just breathe with it), and any gagging business during extraction will be short.
DAY TWO: Graduation from ICU! In the morning I took my first and only walk around the cardiac ICU, during which I guarantee you you will see a lot of people far worse off than you (which, if you're a small person like me, will make you feel much better about your situation). Then I was moved to a small private room in Cardiac Recovery. Here, in the afternoon, I had my only episode of AFib: my heart rate spiked to the 170s for 11 seconds. Within a minute, all 8 members of my surgical team were crammed into my teeny tiny room (if you ever want to be the most important person in a room, go into AFib in a Cardiac Unit). My head surgeon, though, decided it wasn't a big deal and was likely caused by the extreme low blood pressure (70/50) and anemia I was discovered to be suffering from, compounded by my just-ended walk. They gave me another unit of blood, some other stuff, and some iron, and banned me from walking for the rest of the day. Worse, from my perspective: they decided to wait to remove my chest tubes until the next day. The chest tubes are pretty much what you've heard them to be: they're not painful, exactly, but they make it really hard to draw a deep breath and the tubes and the jug they drain into are annoyingly in the way.
On the plus side, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror during my morning walk, and to be honest, I looked rather fetching. By that I mean relative to other 48-year-old women who've had heart surgery the day before. By that I mean that my hair looked fabulous.
DAY THREE: Chest Tube Removal! By afternoon my BP and CBC levels had improved to the point that they allowed me to walk again and took out the chest tubes. That is a bit uncomfortable, but so quick, and so worth it for the ease of movement and breathing it restores. Also, my kids came to visit and saw how fabulous my hair looked.
DAY FOUR: By the morning of this day, I had improved so much that my surgeon actually cleared me for discharge, until one of his interns pointed out that I hadn't pooped yet. Thus began an intense relationship between me and various laxatives, but unfortunately I didn't poop until that evening, so I was stuck for another night. They did take out my pacer wires, which, again, feels weird for less than a second and is more than worth it to have your heart "unplugged."
DAY FIVE: As intense as was my affair with laxatives the day before, my hatred of my bed by this day far exceeded it. Like many others on this board, I'd developed great soreness across my shoulders, neck and upper back, easily exceeding the incisional pain, and I attribute this to the surgical procedure and to the fact that I had to put my 5'2" body into a highly complicated hospital bed that contorted whenever and however it felt like all night long. So my 1:30 discharge, though a day early by my surgeon's standards, was actually a day late by mine.
So, there you have it: some glitches, but nothing too serious, and now I'm home. And, despite the lingering aches and pains, I really do feel that my heart is working better than it was just four days ago. I'm looking forward to some therapeutic walks tomorrow (I did some today, but being as how I couldn't resist those pajamas, it was conducted entirely in laps around my patio), and a good night's sleep in my reclining chair.
I'm happy to answer any questions any of you might have!
++++++++++++++++++++++++++
I'm home, wearing cozy pajamas after the best shower EVER, and I thought I'd take a couple of minutes to add a few details about my surgical experience for those yet to go through it. I found this kind of post very helpful when I was in the waiting room, so now I'm paying it....backward?
DAY ONE: This was Surgery Day, so I got up at 5 and my husband drove me into San Francisco for my 6 AM roll call. Everything went very smoothly despite the pre-op staging area resembling a bus station, and I was wheeled into the OR at 7:30. I wasn't as nervous as I'd thought I would be; my primary emotion was relief that the day had come and I would get my heart fixed at last.
I woke up in the ICU at 3PM with the breathing tube still in. My husband was there, and he told me that the surgeon had been surprised by how bad my valve looked given my lack of significant symptoms, and thought I'd notice a big difference. I was more about noticing the breathing tube at that moment, which I wanted out immediately. Although it wasn't claustrophobic, as I'd feared, and it was a lot smaller than I'd expected, there was still some gagging and flailing as they sat me up to cough it out that was, at least, over quickly. For those who fear the breathing tube, I will say that if you do wake up with it still in, it won't feel that bad (just breathe with it), and any gagging business during extraction will be short.
DAY TWO: Graduation from ICU! In the morning I took my first and only walk around the cardiac ICU, during which I guarantee you you will see a lot of people far worse off than you (which, if you're a small person like me, will make you feel much better about your situation). Then I was moved to a small private room in Cardiac Recovery. Here, in the afternoon, I had my only episode of AFib: my heart rate spiked to the 170s for 11 seconds. Within a minute, all 8 members of my surgical team were crammed into my teeny tiny room (if you ever want to be the most important person in a room, go into AFib in a Cardiac Unit). My head surgeon, though, decided it wasn't a big deal and was likely caused by the extreme low blood pressure (70/50) and anemia I was discovered to be suffering from, compounded by my just-ended walk. They gave me another unit of blood, some other stuff, and some iron, and banned me from walking for the rest of the day. Worse, from my perspective: they decided to wait to remove my chest tubes until the next day. The chest tubes are pretty much what you've heard them to be: they're not painful, exactly, but they make it really hard to draw a deep breath and the tubes and the jug they drain into are annoyingly in the way.
On the plus side, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror during my morning walk, and to be honest, I looked rather fetching. By that I mean relative to other 48-year-old women who've had heart surgery the day before. By that I mean that my hair looked fabulous.
DAY THREE: Chest Tube Removal! By afternoon my BP and CBC levels had improved to the point that they allowed me to walk again and took out the chest tubes. That is a bit uncomfortable, but so quick, and so worth it for the ease of movement and breathing it restores. Also, my kids came to visit and saw how fabulous my hair looked.
DAY FOUR: By the morning of this day, I had improved so much that my surgeon actually cleared me for discharge, until one of his interns pointed out that I hadn't pooped yet. Thus began an intense relationship between me and various laxatives, but unfortunately I didn't poop until that evening, so I was stuck for another night. They did take out my pacer wires, which, again, feels weird for less than a second and is more than worth it to have your heart "unplugged."
DAY FIVE: As intense as was my affair with laxatives the day before, my hatred of my bed by this day far exceeded it. Like many others on this board, I'd developed great soreness across my shoulders, neck and upper back, easily exceeding the incisional pain, and I attribute this to the surgical procedure and to the fact that I had to put my 5'2" body into a highly complicated hospital bed that contorted whenever and however it felt like all night long. So my 1:30 discharge, though a day early by my surgeon's standards, was actually a day late by mine.
So, there you have it: some glitches, but nothing too serious, and now I'm home. And, despite the lingering aches and pains, I really do feel that my heart is working better than it was just four days ago. I'm looking forward to some therapeutic walks tomorrow (I did some today, but being as how I couldn't resist those pajamas, it was conducted entirely in laps around my patio), and a good night's sleep in my reclining chair.
I'm happy to answer any questions any of you might have!
. Many Blessings 
