Had mitral valve surgery Friday the 21s of October,

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I am sorry about your ICU and other experience with the nasty nurses and doctors, they can be so touchy when you are so much more touchy than they and we act more civilized than they. I believe it, I had a nurse who tried to get to scrub hard on my tender incision. But when she left, i talked to it that everything will be fine as soon as I would get home. This same nurse, the next day, told me I was being discharged, saying that they needed my bed soon. I told her I needed to call me brother, she walked away. I was crying and another nurse, this one was very nice and sweet, asked what was wrong and helped look up my brother work number and cell phone number, I was under pumphead at that moment. Was ever glad to get out of there. Since then, that hospital was torn down with another not far away and they built a big ass hospital, bad as ever, I hear. I will never have to there anyway. Glad you are a fellow survivor of mean nurses patient survivors club. We had endured and made it home. You take care and do not push the recovery, no weight lifting until you get permission from the doctor. Hugs for today.
 
My experiences with the nursing staff at NYU is mixed...but by far most were extremely competent which is #1 priority..I think a few can use some compassion training though... It's an intense serious job...and a mistake can mean real trouble...they do have tough jobs with demanding patients and difficult situations...but I still expect and demand excellence and don't make excuses for them either.

I finally went out for a walk today...walked from my apartment to Grand Central Station, a solid one mile and once there probably walked another half mile including several staircases...I had drinks (one) with a friend there and considered walking home but felt I didn't want to push it that hard and took a cab..Went back to my apartment, changed and walked a few blocks and had a two hour dinner...I felt pretty perfect the whole day..I was out about 6 hours...I do have soreness that bothers me a little around the incision..I removed the bandage and kept it off...It looks like it's healing well but I hope it eventually flattens out..right now the whole length of the incision is elevated almost like a 'braid'...i hate the way it looks...I would have preferred an innie to an outie...but maybe it will settle down.

I cut my dose of Lasix in half to 20mg 2x a day...the doctor was concerned it was too high and wants me to monitor my weight but I don't have a scale yet...But I examined my ankles and legs and it appears to have gone down probably 50%...Better less than more of the Lasix....

I plan on a nice long walk to NYU tomorrow...no more labs for me...might as well go to the source where my cardiologist is...then he can get my INR level and advise me what dose I should be on Warfarin...

On my walk to Grand Central I took my pulse and can see it's much lower than it was under similar conditions before surgery....resting heart rate is lower and bp is lower as well...I was taking 320/25 Diovan (max dose) before surgery to ease pressure off the valve...now I am taking 25mg Metropolol (sp) 2x a day..I would not be surprised and really hope I won't need anything other than a baby aspirin in a couple of months.

More later....This is a bit like my blog diary..Hope it's not too boring!
 
I'm not sure why y'all would accept a "bad" nurse participating in your care. I had a nurse come in on the second shift the first day I was in the step down unit, who I knew there was no way we were going to get along. She was a total witch in the first minute she spent in my room. After a couple of minutes, she stepped out to get something and I sent my husband out to speak to the head nurse to tell her in no way was that woman to come back into my room for the rest of my stay. I had a different nurse in about 2 minutes and never saw that other woman again. The rest of the nursing staff I had were fantastic and I had no further problems.

You can't be afraid to speak up for yourself in your healthcare. That nurse may have just had a bad day, but she wasn't going to be having it while taking care of me. That's what head nurses and patient advocates are for.


Kim
 
I wish I'd known there was such a thing as patient advocates when I was in the hospital. I encounered some real winners during my stay one of them was a Doctor, (I think) who stood about 4 feet away from the foot of my bed after I'd just had an emergency cath I was confused and scared as I had no clue what was going on yet (had gone to emerg for what I thought was asthma and was sent on a 2 hour ambulance ride to RJH). I had still not talked to a Doctor yet. This Doctor (don't know his name) stood there and said "you are being admitted, and will need open heart surgery" then walked away. I still cry every time I think about that experience. I had no one with me, at the time so I just cried. I was in an open cadiac short stay ward and no one came over to explain anything to me or even close the curtain around my bed. It was horrible. I think a lot of health care workers treat patients as a pile of symptoms on a chart instead of people.
 
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Good posts...Yes the patient advocate was great..and we do have many more rights than we might think but we are obviously very vulnerable and it's hard to fight when you are so weak...although I seem to be able to do it... : >

I had a flash today to not go to the lab so fast, as I never got the results from the first test! I don't think my cardio was thinking clearly when he suggested I come in today..So I called his office, spoke to his assistant and got the test results...INR is a 1.8, so we agreed there was no need to get it tested so soon..She is leaving a standing order for tests at his office and I can go whenever I want..I managed to get an appointment on Thursday to see him and she told me to get the test by Thursday...Really glad I called rather than march like a zombie on Halloween to give yet more blood.

I feel pretty good today...a little tired but I'm going out soon to go for a nice walk and see how it feels.

Happy Halloween all
 
Can it be only one week since I made this thread? Truly unbelievable!

Other than some odd feelings in my heart (minor) most of the time I feel pretty good...maybe a bit more tired than I should be but it seems I can push it one day (out for a few hours walking and just out) and then be pretty extra wiped out the next day or so....Nothing that bad.

I was inside and under the weather and not feeling good pre op for over a month and I live alone so I def have major cabin fever...A typical day does always include at least 30 minutes walking but that's just about it..other than that, I'm watching movies or tv, online all day and the phone...I get a visitor a day too which is a nice break.

I sold my business about two years ago and don't have or need a job...so this is a very weird and special time where I can do just about nothing and it's ok!

But I do worry about the cold weather coming and I can't wait to test drive this working heart and travel...I probably should wait till about 6 weeks or so when I am strong enough to handle carrying stuff easily.

Well INR test at the hospital tomorrow and a good excuse for a decent round trip walk!

sorry I'm for boring..but better boring than drama right now!
 

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