J
jax3172
I posted on 7/19 on the eve of cath and surgery. First of all, thank you all for your thoughts, prayers, and well wishes. However, things did not go all that smooth. The surgery (new AV and Ascending Aorta) was performed on 7/21. The surgeon, Dr. Bavaria from U of P, was very pleased with his work - except for one minor thing: I had a brain stem stroke either during the operation or post op (seems to be some difference of opinion). He said a small piece of calcium from my excised valve found its way to my brain stem. I think it was the awful time I had retching and dry heaving coming out of anesthesia. In any event: I came out of the operation with double vision, difficulty breathing, speech problems, and last but certainly not least, the inability to swallow.
The breathing difficulty went away in about 3 days. The vision and speech are minor annoyances. The swallow was (and is) big problems. I was not able to eat, drink, or sleep for the first week after my surgery because I was chocking on my saliva. If I fell asleep, I'd wake up chocking. They tried to put feeding tubes down my nose (for about 3 days) but had no success (even though they left them in for a while to add to the torment). Not to be dramatic but I suffered greatly. In addition, and possibly because of my weakened condition, I went into A Fib 3 times (once for 16 hours). I was not on blood thinners (so many suture lines) so the threat of a clot was very possible. They had to put a giant octopus IV line in my neck while I was awake so they could start giving me amnio. I also had other chest pains that they could not figure out the source of (I wondered if things were "coming apart"). They finally put a feeding tube in my stomach on day eight - of course I went into A Fib while coming out of that anesthesia. After 16 days, I was 2 days from my last A Fib and figuring out how to sleep a couple hours a night so they sent me home on 200 mg of amnio a day. I immediately went into A Fib when I walked in the front door and had all sorts of irregular rhythms for 3 or 4 days. A cardio friend of mine suggested the dose was too low and said that if I doubled it, my rhythm problems would resolve. He was correct. I still "didn't feel right in the heart area and had minor events. On the evening of 8/13, I had very sharp pain back to front and BP shot up 50 points in 1 minute. I wound up in the emergency room. An EKG produced inverted T waves (bad) but all blood tests showed no heart attack. A CT scan indicated that all the sewing was "holding together" - thank God for small favors. An EKG 3 hours later was normal. So what exactly was that "event"? I've had similar "events" since but milder. Even though I still have some chest pains from time to time, I think I'm improving in the cardio area - I just said screw it and started walking. I'm now over a mile a day and beginning to see my heart rate come down from 85 into the seventies. I hope I'm out of the woods on the cardio stuff. I am continuing to walk more and more. I'm building my stamina and feel better each day. I have a cardiac event monitor I can hit record on if I feel something uncool.
I am now a week into therapy on the swallow problem (something called e-stim) and I think I'm making progress. I can't eat or drink yet (strictly on the feeding tube) but am beginning to be able to swallow my saliva a little better (from not at all). I have a barium swallow test tomorrow AM and hope for the best. I'll be getting a prism lense in a day or two that will actually enable me to see single instead of double, and I'm talking much better.
I am hopeful that I can have something resembling my old life back at some point down the road. I knew a few times that I was close to death but prayed and fought hard because I want so badly to live. I dearly want to continue life with my wife, 3 kids, 3 and 1/2 grandchildren, and many dear friends and extended family. I also want a second chance to "do it right". You know: treat everybody with dignity and respect even if we differ; be straight and honest; spread happiness and cheer the best I can.
I don't know what tomorrow will bring (sometimes I cringe waiting for the next shoe to drop) but I think I'm getting that chance. I'll keep you all posted. Again, thanks for all your prayers and well wishes.
Jack
The breathing difficulty went away in about 3 days. The vision and speech are minor annoyances. The swallow was (and is) big problems. I was not able to eat, drink, or sleep for the first week after my surgery because I was chocking on my saliva. If I fell asleep, I'd wake up chocking. They tried to put feeding tubes down my nose (for about 3 days) but had no success (even though they left them in for a while to add to the torment). Not to be dramatic but I suffered greatly. In addition, and possibly because of my weakened condition, I went into A Fib 3 times (once for 16 hours). I was not on blood thinners (so many suture lines) so the threat of a clot was very possible. They had to put a giant octopus IV line in my neck while I was awake so they could start giving me amnio. I also had other chest pains that they could not figure out the source of (I wondered if things were "coming apart"). They finally put a feeding tube in my stomach on day eight - of course I went into A Fib while coming out of that anesthesia. After 16 days, I was 2 days from my last A Fib and figuring out how to sleep a couple hours a night so they sent me home on 200 mg of amnio a day. I immediately went into A Fib when I walked in the front door and had all sorts of irregular rhythms for 3 or 4 days. A cardio friend of mine suggested the dose was too low and said that if I doubled it, my rhythm problems would resolve. He was correct. I still "didn't feel right in the heart area and had minor events. On the evening of 8/13, I had very sharp pain back to front and BP shot up 50 points in 1 minute. I wound up in the emergency room. An EKG produced inverted T waves (bad) but all blood tests showed no heart attack. A CT scan indicated that all the sewing was "holding together" - thank God for small favors. An EKG 3 hours later was normal. So what exactly was that "event"? I've had similar "events" since but milder. Even though I still have some chest pains from time to time, I think I'm improving in the cardio area - I just said screw it and started walking. I'm now over a mile a day and beginning to see my heart rate come down from 85 into the seventies. I hope I'm out of the woods on the cardio stuff. I am continuing to walk more and more. I'm building my stamina and feel better each day. I have a cardiac event monitor I can hit record on if I feel something uncool.
I am now a week into therapy on the swallow problem (something called e-stim) and I think I'm making progress. I can't eat or drink yet (strictly on the feeding tube) but am beginning to be able to swallow my saliva a little better (from not at all). I have a barium swallow test tomorrow AM and hope for the best. I'll be getting a prism lense in a day or two that will actually enable me to see single instead of double, and I'm talking much better.
I am hopeful that I can have something resembling my old life back at some point down the road. I knew a few times that I was close to death but prayed and fought hard because I want so badly to live. I dearly want to continue life with my wife, 3 kids, 3 and 1/2 grandchildren, and many dear friends and extended family. I also want a second chance to "do it right". You know: treat everybody with dignity and respect even if we differ; be straight and honest; spread happiness and cheer the best I can.
I don't know what tomorrow will bring (sometimes I cringe waiting for the next shoe to drop) but I think I'm getting that chance. I'll keep you all posted. Again, thanks for all your prayers and well wishes.
Jack
