Dray
Member
Hi every one! Wanted to say thanks for all the pre-op wishes and to let all know I'm back at home after a 4 day hospital stay.
What an experience to go through! It was planned to have my ascending aorta and aortic valve replaced but the doctor was able to repair the ascending aorta saving me additional time on bypass.
A few thoughts about the whole experience:
1) My On-X mechanical aortic valve is mostly very quiet. There are a few times where I can hear it (if I lay in certain positions but mostly when I’m standing up.) Post-op I was rather startled by the fact that I couldn’t feel nor hear my heart beat. Both were very noticeable to me pre-surgery. Typically I could hear and feel my heart beat in my ears and head and I didn’t need to concentrate very hard before I could feel them. It is a very high-pitched click sound and it appears to be louder for people around me than to me.
2) The whole run up to surgery has been by FAR the most difficult thing to battle. Post-op for me has been so much smoother than I anticipated:
In ICU for a day, central line removed day two, chest tubes and Foley removed day three, lots of walking on day four until time of discharge. I’m in very little pain (something that I think is mentioned by many folks on the forum). The most irritating thing I’ve found are my shirts catching on the stubble left over from my chest shave.
3) Having to tolerate a roommate was up there on my “most annoying” list items, but honestly very little about the actual surgery itself was. I’m very pleased!
As for the list of things I found most uncomfortable:
1) Breathing tubes. I did not like being awaken in the OR with them in place. They removed the tube from me before I went into the ICU, but in order to do this they had to wake me in the OR to remove it. Very uncomfortable feeling but it was short lived.
2) Chest tubes. The entire time they were in I felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath. Once removed I did feel better but still couldn’t breathe deeply since the expansion of my chest pulled on the incision.
3) Hot/cold flashes. I’d be sweating one moment, freezing the next. This seems to be setting down a bit for me now, but still occurs.
4) Nausea – I felt sick to my stomach for days afterwards. I couldn’t eat much but did best on soups and liquids.
As for the Coumadin monitoring, I was tested today and am told I’m at a 2.5 after just a few days of 5mg. I’m due for a follow up on Thursday to make sure I’m still in the therapeutic range at which time they’ll make adjustments to my dosage as needed.
I’m very happy to have that behind me and, even though I thought I had a pretty easy go, I’d rather not endure it again anytime soon! So good to have that behind me.
And thanks to all the information on this forum, I heard more than once from many surgeons, doctors and nurses I saw, “You have really done your research on this…”
David
What an experience to go through! It was planned to have my ascending aorta and aortic valve replaced but the doctor was able to repair the ascending aorta saving me additional time on bypass.
A few thoughts about the whole experience:
1) My On-X mechanical aortic valve is mostly very quiet. There are a few times where I can hear it (if I lay in certain positions but mostly when I’m standing up.) Post-op I was rather startled by the fact that I couldn’t feel nor hear my heart beat. Both were very noticeable to me pre-surgery. Typically I could hear and feel my heart beat in my ears and head and I didn’t need to concentrate very hard before I could feel them. It is a very high-pitched click sound and it appears to be louder for people around me than to me.
2) The whole run up to surgery has been by FAR the most difficult thing to battle. Post-op for me has been so much smoother than I anticipated:
In ICU for a day, central line removed day two, chest tubes and Foley removed day three, lots of walking on day four until time of discharge. I’m in very little pain (something that I think is mentioned by many folks on the forum). The most irritating thing I’ve found are my shirts catching on the stubble left over from my chest shave.
3) Having to tolerate a roommate was up there on my “most annoying” list items, but honestly very little about the actual surgery itself was. I’m very pleased!
As for the list of things I found most uncomfortable:
1) Breathing tubes. I did not like being awaken in the OR with them in place. They removed the tube from me before I went into the ICU, but in order to do this they had to wake me in the OR to remove it. Very uncomfortable feeling but it was short lived.
2) Chest tubes. The entire time they were in I felt like I couldn’t take a deep breath. Once removed I did feel better but still couldn’t breathe deeply since the expansion of my chest pulled on the incision.
3) Hot/cold flashes. I’d be sweating one moment, freezing the next. This seems to be setting down a bit for me now, but still occurs.
4) Nausea – I felt sick to my stomach for days afterwards. I couldn’t eat much but did best on soups and liquids.
As for the Coumadin monitoring, I was tested today and am told I’m at a 2.5 after just a few days of 5mg. I’m due for a follow up on Thursday to make sure I’m still in the therapeutic range at which time they’ll make adjustments to my dosage as needed.
I’m very happy to have that behind me and, even though I thought I had a pretty easy go, I’d rather not endure it again anytime soon! So good to have that behind me.
And thanks to all the information on this forum, I heard more than once from many surgeons, doctors and nurses I saw, “You have really done your research on this…”
David
I agree, that "Tube" down my throat, was the worst moment of my surgery. When I woke up ( the 3rd time), I was in the OR ,but the surgery was finished. I thought I was in ICU already, and immediately started to try to pull that tube out, felt like I was suffocating/choking. They were calm with me......said hold on, we are going to remove it for you, they did.........and everything was right in my corner of reality once more, as I drifted back to sleep.
