harleygirl528
Well-known member
hello all,
Thought I should take a minute to let everyone know that although I was feeling so wonderful and progressing at such a wonderful rate the inevitable did happen....I hit the proverbial "bump in the road." Starting on Sunday I started having a lot of sharp pain with deep breathing, particularly on my left side, and as a result I was doing a lot of shallow breathing to avoid this pain. I also started to avoid a lot of activity since it was painful to take deep breaths and sleeping became really hard. Funny thing is if you shallow breath long enough your body will actually force you to take a deep breath all on its own....and ouch...that was painful....it was very hard to get comfortable and move around in bed. Anyway, on Monday my mother took me to the emergency room. My surgeon in California spoke to them ahead of time and told them the tests to run, including a chest x-ray, echo and EKG. The ER doctor came in after all the tests were back and said that I had pneumonia! I was shocked but did feel relieved as I knew something wasn't right. I went home with antiobotics and basically continued to suffer and count the hours and minutes until I could take another pain pill. I did talk to Dr. Raissi later that night who said he had looked at all the tests and I did NOT have pneumonia but I was kind of out of it and really didn't catch the drift of what he was trying to say. After all, I sure was hurting with each inhallation so it made sense to me. Went to the cardio on Tuesday (yesterday) and she also reviewed all the tests. She concurred with Dr. Raissi that I did not have pneumonia but rather had pleural effisions (very common after OHS) and very painful! She put me on a regimen of taking a high dose of Motrin (800 mg) every 6 hours around the clock and told me to continue the antibiotics. Anyway, 24 hours later and I feel like a new woman. The Motrin did the trick! In fact, I went 12 hours without any othe pain meds at all and I have gotten off the Percocet completely (I was kinda nasty on the Percocet....as in not a very nice person). So, I am feeling much better and have already walked a mile on the treadmill today. I did find out that when I started to feel bad the inclination to be less active and lay around was the worst thing I could have done. Staying active not only increases lung function but helps boost your immune system and helps you heal faster. It's kind of a catch 22 though...the worse you feel the less motivation you have for walking or doing any activity.
I also have some issues with the drain tube holes ( I call them my bullet holes..that's what they look like right now). The steri-strips they put on them were not my friend.....they did not hold the incisions together and instead seemed to provide a warm, moist environment for infection. When I finally peeled them back there was tons of nasty white puss and the holes were totally open. I am now leaving them open to air as much as possible and cleaning with diluted peroxide twice a day. They still look bad but the cardio said yesterday that they were healing okay and the initial culture reports were fine. So, as good as I was doing, I guess I was not immune to the setbacks that many of us face. I am still happy to be looking at this whole thing from the other side of the mountain and am hopeful that the worst is behind me and that I am firmly on the road to recovery.
Thanks everyone for your continued support and encouragement!
Thought I should take a minute to let everyone know that although I was feeling so wonderful and progressing at such a wonderful rate the inevitable did happen....I hit the proverbial "bump in the road." Starting on Sunday I started having a lot of sharp pain with deep breathing, particularly on my left side, and as a result I was doing a lot of shallow breathing to avoid this pain. I also started to avoid a lot of activity since it was painful to take deep breaths and sleeping became really hard. Funny thing is if you shallow breath long enough your body will actually force you to take a deep breath all on its own....and ouch...that was painful....it was very hard to get comfortable and move around in bed. Anyway, on Monday my mother took me to the emergency room. My surgeon in California spoke to them ahead of time and told them the tests to run, including a chest x-ray, echo and EKG. The ER doctor came in after all the tests were back and said that I had pneumonia! I was shocked but did feel relieved as I knew something wasn't right. I went home with antiobotics and basically continued to suffer and count the hours and minutes until I could take another pain pill. I did talk to Dr. Raissi later that night who said he had looked at all the tests and I did NOT have pneumonia but I was kind of out of it and really didn't catch the drift of what he was trying to say. After all, I sure was hurting with each inhallation so it made sense to me. Went to the cardio on Tuesday (yesterday) and she also reviewed all the tests. She concurred with Dr. Raissi that I did not have pneumonia but rather had pleural effisions (very common after OHS) and very painful! She put me on a regimen of taking a high dose of Motrin (800 mg) every 6 hours around the clock and told me to continue the antibiotics. Anyway, 24 hours later and I feel like a new woman. The Motrin did the trick! In fact, I went 12 hours without any othe pain meds at all and I have gotten off the Percocet completely (I was kinda nasty on the Percocet....as in not a very nice person). So, I am feeling much better and have already walked a mile on the treadmill today. I did find out that when I started to feel bad the inclination to be less active and lay around was the worst thing I could have done. Staying active not only increases lung function but helps boost your immune system and helps you heal faster. It's kind of a catch 22 though...the worse you feel the less motivation you have for walking or doing any activity.
I also have some issues with the drain tube holes ( I call them my bullet holes..that's what they look like right now). The steri-strips they put on them were not my friend.....they did not hold the incisions together and instead seemed to provide a warm, moist environment for infection. When I finally peeled them back there was tons of nasty white puss and the holes were totally open. I am now leaving them open to air as much as possible and cleaning with diluted peroxide twice a day. They still look bad but the cardio said yesterday that they were healing okay and the initial culture reports were fine. So, as good as I was doing, I guess I was not immune to the setbacks that many of us face. I am still happy to be looking at this whole thing from the other side of the mountain and am hopeful that the worst is behind me and that I am firmly on the road to recovery.
Thanks everyone for your continued support and encouragement!
