In my case, my heart surgery was completely unexpected. On December 9th I felt a 'weird fluttery feeling' in my left carotid artery after an unusually long series of PVCs (previously my cardiologist had said they were benign manifestations of my mild mitral valve prolapse). By December 11th it was obviously my heart, but I was already on 10 liters/min oxygen and in cardiogenic shock. The first ER visit was about $850 (12/9). The second was also about $850 (12/10), followed by admission to the hospital for 'atypical pneumonia.' The expenses shot up when I went to ICU by early 12/11, and had to have cardiologists and lots of other people. That part came out to about $12,000, about $10,000 of which was paid for by my insurance ($2000 deductible).
Then the big money... I was in critical condition (flail mitral valve with pulmonary edema, congestive heart failure, ARDS {acute respiratory distress syndrome}, and general cardiogenic shock), but aggressive diuresis stabilized me for the $15,000 life flight from St. Luke's of Twin Falls to St. Luke's of Boise--just this week my insurance paid for the entire ambulance service--whew! Thank God.
I was so critical by the time I got to Boise the surgeon decided that I needed surgery within the hour, and did the TEE only 20 minutes after I arrived, just as my wife got there. I was very briefly awakened for prayer with a pastor, then put back under. Twenty minutes later Dr. Huerd made the first incision, and fixed the flail posterior leaflet. That cost was right about $54,000, and I was so relieved and amazed that my co-pay for the entire operation was $418! The surgeons' fees were about $16,000 in addition. Lots of prayer and excellent ICU people helped me recover quickly enough to go home 8 days after surgery.
Since my surgery was in December, most of my follow-up stuff is during a new deductible cycle, so I've paid about $1100 so far this year (two echocardiograms, three visits to cardiologist, post cardiac depression counseling sessions, etc.) I supposedly owe about $1500 more, but some is left over balances from last year's deductible period during my first local hospital admission. At least this year's deductible is already out of the way...
Total out of pocket is about $5000, and total expense, mostly covered by insurance, was about $100,000.
Due to my perilous condition at the start of all of this, estimates for my care ranged up to $200,000, but my rapid recovery (by the grace of God), kept expenses and hospital time down considerably.
An important note: I religiously observed the warnings of my post surgical instructions. I didn't lift more than 10 lbs. for the first 6 weeks, didn't drive for 4 weeks, even at 15 weeks I didn't attempt much heavy lifting, and no across the chest pulling. I braced my chest for every cough, and carefully controlled my sneezing by either stopping the sneezes or (later) more firmly bracing my chest. These precautions have paid great dividends. I can now carry both children (boy, 70 lbs.; girl, 40 lbs.) at the same time down the stairs, two 5 gallon buckets of water carried to my chickens about 100 feet from the faucet, and repair about 60 feet of chain link fence that required lots of pulling and unbending lots of twisted wire. Recently I have even been able to do a few push-ups and was able to hang from monkey bars full weight for the first time without significant pain. Today I was finally able to put away the Christmas tree and Christmas decorations and ornaments boxes on high shelves over my head without any problems.
Summary: Don't over do it! Treat your sternotomy like a broken bone, and baby it while it heals the same way. Then when the bone knits, go for it--but incrementally. Now I think that I'll be able to clean my chicken houses (yes, shoveling heavy stuff into a wheelbarrow), and mowing a lawn while ducking fruit trees with low branches in the very near future--and not worry about sternum pain getting in the way.
Chris
