TheGymGuy
Well-known member
My 4 days in the hospital.
I just wanted to say that yours and my friends and family's thoughts, prayers, and positive energy has carried me through this surgery. All I had to do was put forth my best effort. I swear the Universe, God, Positive Energy, and the Surgical team did the rest, and it is amazing what was accomplished. This is my experience which might be shorter than others that you will read, but even though the timeline might be accelerated, the events are still the ones you will go through during your surgery and initial recovery. I want to tell you that you are in control of what is happening most of the time. It is YOU, YOUR BODY, YOUR SUPPORT TEAM, and hospital staff. Go in educated, be prepared to work hard and FIGHT. Have your support team be ready for encouragement. Do not feel bad if you are in pain or feel weak, use that as an opportunity for course corrections. Hospital will provide the needed drugs to stabilize you, always do the most you can do. Do not give up for a second. You made it through your surgery and it is your turn now to take control and win. This is what was going through my mind and I hope that you can adopt some of it and use it as well.
Day 0 (Surgery)
Last seconds with my wife, I became very emotional. Perhaps, more so emotional than I ever remember myself feeling. This moment, in my mind, defined to me my true humanity, I was worried about my baby and my wife, how much I will miss them and how there will be no one here to really love them the way that I do and take care of them. I am not sure that J has ever seen me this way, and in a way I hope she got to know me better than ever at that one moment.
On the table at 7am, in the Room at 2pm. I remember being transfered to an operating table in OR and looking around and seeing all sorts of high-tech gadgets that just made me want to hang out there and look and touch everything. That is the last thing I remember, next thing was around 2pm in my room. The hospital that we chose has 1 room for the patient where you go after your surgery and stay till checkout time. They simply remove equipment that you no longer use as you get more unplugged from the machines, etc. As I opened my eyes, I knew I had a tube in my mouth and I remember JeffF and others telling me that the tube will come out after your lungs are working sufficiently on their own and your blood oxygen is high enough. I knew I was awake, I was not in pain, so the first thing I do is start violently sucking air though the tube and filling my lungs as much as I can. Next thing I hear is that they will be removing tube in 15 minutes, I do not quit, oh no, I will not stop, I keep on sucking air, 10 minutes left, I am told only 5 minutes left, then, take a big breath in and out and the tube is gone!!! I am not sure that I minded the tube, but my fear of it was so high that I wanted it out asap. Later, I was told that I set some record with only having breathing tube for 15 minutes in my room. Or, at least, this is the memory I choose to keep.
2:20pm or so when I arrived to my room my surgeon wanted to give a young lad like myself a boost, so that 1 PINT I donated 2 weeks ago was given to me to enjoy the fresh new RBCs and Plasma. I think this has made me feel better, but do not know for sure. I was given the blood in my room, post-op, but before I was fully awake. See this thread for me trying to make my decision on banking my blood: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?39822-Surgery-date-has-been-set-to-03-27-2012 . In retrospect this was a GREAT idea.
2:30pm or so, Anesthesiologist gave me his hand like a handshake or maybe he gave me several fingers and asks me how I am doing, I try to squeeze his hand as hard as I can to show him I am doing well, and respond with an "eh" to his question. This is true, I was feeling "eh", sort of dull discomfort, but not unbearable or anything. I think this guy did a great job. I talked to him about "pump-head" minutes before surgery and he said that he is well aware of the condition, the research around it, and that they re-warm the body slowly. This is the same message I got from the surgeon in our previous talks. My feeling when I woke up was pretty drugged up, dull pain everywhere, and especially in my torso/abdomen. I told him in one word that I could think up how I was doing - "eh".
2:30pm - 6pm I saw my wife and many many members of my family. My advice to you is minimize the traffic in your room, it gets distracting and people can just txt/call your significant other or parents and get same news as they get in person. I was fully awake and was told to go take a nap and lower my blood pressure. I actually felt my heart beating pretty strongly and was very happy about that. At some point, I remember telling my wife, that I was "bored" just laying there. This much drugs in you makes you feel like you could get up and walk.
Rest of the day and night went pretty uneventful. I threw up once as a reaction to some IV pain-killer and it sucked (not the pain-killer the throwing up). Though, since I have not had any food or drink in me the throw up was a bit of water than I had at 6:40am which they had me drink with half a pill of metropolol, a pretty standard procedure before heart surgery.
I was starting to feel some dull aches and asking for more pain killers here and there. I remember telling my brother at some point that I felt like they "were not managing my pain" level properly. This should have been a hint of what was to come (pain management wise)
One more note about day 0. You will have many tubes stuck in you. I saw pictures and videos of people with them and it is pretty scary to an onlooker. From visibility stand point, you will have a neck IV, this one is scary looking and has all sorts of things in there. There is actually a cannula going into your heart from there too. Also, both or one hands IVs and both wrist IVs which are used for pressure measurement purposes. Invisible to your guests will be the catheter, 2-4 chest tubes (most likely 3), and pacemaking wires from your heart. When people/visitors see this stuff they look freaked out, and honestly, the last thing you want is seeing fear and such in your visitor's eyes. Prepare your guests for this sort of thing, so that when they see you, their eyes should not have fear or some other emotion which will get you down. Remember, you can control your guest list. I operate under principle KISS (keep it simple silly), the less complications the better.
Day 1 (Recovery Begins)
Around 4am, it was time to get up and sit in the chair/recliner. Right before this, they got some blood, fluid checks, x-ray in my bed, and I took some pills. 2 hours later I would be taking my very first walk, which everyone would tell you is no easy task. I picked a point away from my room, which I believe was about 30-50 baby steps away. While 2 nurses were supporting me I went there and back and was put back into my recliner. This is the day where most little IV's and other things were removed from me, except for chest tubes, catheter, IV in my left arm, and neck IV (which I know was removed later on that day, but do not remember exactly when). Good news is that after most things are removed, you feel loads more mobile. This day I took 2 more walks. First walk was one whole lap around the unit. It's actually a pretty small lap, but the only lap I could take so I made the most of it. Second walk was later in the evening, and I believe I did 3 laps, though, 3rd lap was a bit much as my body was very very cold and slightly shaky after we finished it. This could also be a reaction to amiodorone, which makes you very cold and just needed time to hit me. After 2 laps I had maybe half a lap, but I pushed through to turn the corner and get back. Nurse held my box with liquids and I walked unassisted.
Right before midnight my catheter was removed. I was well prepared for all the things that people here warned me about, so I tripple made sure they deflated the balloons, but, boy, when the pulled I swear this was worse than chest tubes removal. I went into serious shaking/shuddering and felt like I had to pee for about 5 minutes straight with nothing coming out.
Most important thing I noticed on Day 1 is that my pain management was slowly cut down. I was in level 3-5 out of 10 pain most of the time, and I would get some shot once in 4-6 hours and 2 x oxycodone every 4 hours. Somehow, it was not enough, and they kept on spacing the dozes further and further out through the day. I suppose this is a good thing, though depends on which angle you look at it from. Right now I believe that this is the best thing they could do for me. Keep me medicated, but not enough that I am too groggy to be physically active. It also might be that they gave me all the meds I needed and my body metabolized them really fast. Either way, I was not very comfortable, and it was mostly caused by chest tubes. Also, I spent close to half a day or more in my recliner and not in bed and it is supposed to be better for you to be more upright and not laying down to recover. Most people tell you and I agree that the faster you get anesthesia out of your body the sooner your recovery will start. I learned that exercise increases our metabolic rates for just about anything and as such tried to be as mobile as possible and as active as possible to get my body back asap.
Day 2 (Recovery Continues)
4am, the cycle repeats, blood work, x-ray in my bed, fluid check from your chest tubes, get up, sit-up in recliner, go for a walk (first walk of the day was 1 lap as I was still slightly skittish from last night).
I felt relatively in control on Day 2. All I had left were chest tubes and 1 IV for pain medication and some other drug delivery, though, they eliminated my IV pain meds at this point and only had me on oxycodone, which sucked since I remember being in level 4 pain most of the time. Majority of this pain was from chest tubes, as I remember having issues with deep breath, and even laughing.
I must have taken 4 walks this day. Each walk was longer and longer. Also, I received lots of messages from my friends and one of my good friends and a workout partner stopped by and brought by lunch and cookies his fiance made. My spirits were high and I was very very active. I spent the whole day in my chair and almost no time in my bed until 10pm that night.
This is also the day that they mentioned that they might check me out tomorrow, and that made me nervous as I did not know if I am ready. Whenever you are in the hospital you feel that if something happens they can save you pretty fast, and even though I was very active, the pain that I now know was from chest tubes had me very worried about leaving.
Day 3 (Checkout)
Another crappy night of sleep. 4am cycle repeats again - blood work (they draw by hand), fluid from your chest tubes check, the x-ray in your bed, medicine taking, etc.
I was extremely worried about having too much fluid but they are saying we are ready. I was accumulating around 12.5 ml per hour the day before and they said that around 100ml per day is when tubes can come out. The nurse at night kept on moving fluid from the tubes into the box they are attached to, and I was worried that she made a mistake.
This is very typical paranoia as well as a very classic last day hospital behavior. And, trust me, they will not sign you out if they think you are not ready. Just think to yourself - who on God's earth would want to stay extra time in the hospital. If they think you are ready - you are ready. Be confident, be ready, embrace the recovery in the comfort of your house.
My wife and I took an 8 lap walk, and I simply carried my box with fluids. Actually, I was carrying my box with fluids starting mid-day yesterday, so if I wanted to walk, I did not need nursing staff to help me or anything. That felt very liberating and made me feel that we are on schedule.
Ok, so around 9:30am a NP (nurse practitioner) that I met at my pre-op came to remove my chest tubes. It was nice to see the person that I knew and she seemed to be very friendly and nice, and narrated what she was doing along the way as well as told me stories about her kids. Believe it or not she put me at ease (chest tube removal was a very scary thing for me). She slowly pulled out each tube one at a time. I have to tell ya that it was not pleasant, but it was not near as painful as my catheter. I would breath in and hold my breath for each of the tubes removal. Each tube would take 3-4 seconds to be fully out and there were about 4-6" of each tube in me. Holding my breath or breathing out slowly but forcefully would diminish the pain you will feel. All 3 tubes combined felt less uncomfortable than the catheter for me. Also, once they are out, you can take a full breath, laugh, sit-up and be so much more comfortable I cannot even describe it. One more thing I am adding here is that when they tie up stitches in your 3 holes, it will pinch and pull. You can ask Nurse to place lots of pressure elsewhere on your stomach or body to get you to feel this hole tying slightly less. When the tubes are gone, most people, and I agree, will tell you that you will feel like a million bucks.
At 11:30am the final x-ray was done to check for air or fluid around my lungs, in my chest/abdominal cavity where the chest tubes were. Once that came back clean, they had me out of there with my bags and all within 2 hours.
We got home after 2pm. Unpacked, changed and just hung out for the rest of the day. I had some delicious food brought by my brother-in-law and we had an awesome family lunch with the baby.
This is my story and I also have pictures and videos that I can either add here or in subsequent posts. Here are the pictures, they are pretty graphic. You have been warned: https://picasaweb.google.com/102667...&authkey=Gv1sRgCJyA28Hiw7XDVQ&feat=directlink
EDITED:
1. Post by my wife with play-by-play as she was waiting during the day of the surgery: http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?39960-TheGymGuy-Updates-3-27-2012
2. My last Pre-op post (I am sure many went through the same feelings): http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?39943-Had-my-Pre-OP-appointment
Yours truly,
TheGymGuy
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