July 13th is the big day

Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
Penny,
Wow, when I went for my CT angiogram, the male nurse blew my vein up in my arm!!! He had to get someone else to come in and do it in the other arm. It hurt like all! I couldn't even bend that arm that day. It looked absolutely hideous for days!! Question is, how did you know you have infection? Were you running a fever, or what? Just curious.

I knew something was wrong for the pain changed if that makes sense. It went from constant dull aching pain to a sharp shooting pain and then on and off cramping pain. I also had swelling and of course the spot that hurt the most was hot. I had just begun feeling nauseous and slightly feverish.
Anyways round 2 of a different type of antibiotics. Doc says these are pretty much the strongest and if they don't work then it's off to the hospital! I am staying off work as per doc's orders so I will have some down time to rest it for a week.
PS I had a male nurse and same thing, felt like he was kneading bread with my arm! Could have
b%tch slapped him a time or too!!! lol
 

Attachments

  • 014..jpg
    014..jpg
    17.2 KB
Last edited:
OMG, Penny! You poor thing. I am so sorry you're having to deal with this on top of everything else. I sure hope the antibiotic will do the trick and you do not have to go to the hospital! Another nurse that I work with saw my arm and she said that was totally inexcusable! Mine was not as bad as yours, bless your heart. Let us know how things go! Take care.
 
Wow Penny that's rough... Sorry... They always have trouble finding veins in me, so I've had a few bruises recently (have two on the back of my hand right now in fact) and the one from my angio took forever to go away. But none of mine have been quite THAT bad! But it'll get better - will just take some time. Sorry about the male nurse... It was a male nurse that took out my bladder catheter. Maybe we should start a petitition against male nurses ;) Just kidding, some of 'em are good.

Angel, you are so, so right! The people in here are just unbelievable! And I felt/feel the exact same way - I don't know how I could have gotten through this w/o this forum. As you get closer to surgery, I wouldn't be surprised if you need the anti-anxiety stuff even less. There seems to be a weird "at peace" feeling that comes on in the last couple days (i've heard others describe it, and I know I had it). It's like - well, there's no turning back now, so might as well just go with the flow. The night before surgery, when I was doing all the prep - which by the way is just a blast - just you wait, lol, I remember thinking, wow, 24 hrs from now, the surgery will be overwith, and I'll be awake in the hospital room. I thought I'd get more nervous in those last few hrs, but actually got less so.

Here's one other 'trick' that worked for me, and I think both of you should try it. In coaching sports, we teach kids to 'visualize success'. That means, see yourself hitting the ball, or catching the ball, or whatever the sport is. If you can see it in your head, you can usually make it happen. Well, it worked for me before surgery too. I'd start visualizing myself 6 months or a year after surgery, living a normal life (in fact, better than I'd lived in years because of my symptoms the last couple years). I'd recommend you try the same thing - the mind is a powerful tool!!! So visualize yourself doing something you want to do 6 months from now, or a year from now. If you can see it - it should give you more confidence that it really is going to happen. Hope that makes sense - it sure worked for me! Now you two kids hold hands, and get each other through this together ;) We'll all be here too of course, rooting you on, praying for you, talking you through it, etc, etc.

Oh, and everyone remember to think some positive thoughts for Heartman77 (Mike). He had his surgery this morning I believe (a Wed. again, lol). And I suspect we'll be hearing from him before the weekend, or at least by early next week. And I'll bet he says the same thing Malibu just said (and I said, and Gil (LuckyGuy) said, and... list goes on and on)... Which is - it's really nowhere near as bad as I feared.
 
So visualize yourself doing something you want to do 6 months from now, or a year from now. If you can see it - it should give you more confidence that it really is going to happen. Hope that makes sense - it sure worked for me!

Thanks Andy
I agree with you the mind is a powerful thing. I am a believer in the unknown, karma, fate, you know all that kind of stuff. If I may I shall share with you the day I was told I would be going for surgery.....
I was pretty shocked and by the time I got home I was pretty upset. My daughter called me and she said Mom, before you tell me what happened at the doctor's today and have to come and tell you something. Of course I asked her to just tell me over the phone and she insisted that she come over and tell me in person. So when I tearfully told her I was going for surgery she gave me a big hug, and told me everything was going to be ok and I was not to worry about it that I would do just fine. I told her I was scared. She let me confide my fears to her and once I settled down she told me her news.... she is pregnant and I am going to be a GRAMMA! YAY!
This is weird for the simple reason, she never planned on having children. I harrassed her to make me a gramma and she said no way! We joked quite often about it.. she said "See Mom you have to be ok to help me when the baby is born" So Andy, my visuallization will be of me playing with that little bundle of joy who is due to arrive on christmas eve... Hugs!!
 
July 13th sounds good to me, thats my Birthday! :) Oh, I was told AFTER my surgery not to have any surgery on Friday's because of so many people being off. Yep, mine was on a Friday, and there wasn't to many people around.
 
Back
Top