Long term damage from DHCA ??

[burnerman]

Well here goes. This is my first post ever regarding this subject. I had an aortic dissection repair with a valve replacement. My body temp was lowered and heart was repaired. After surgery my vision and balance was affected. I had both vertical and horizontal gaze palsy. I could not focus without closing one eye. I could not read a book as I could not follow the lines. That cleared up,but now and for the past year I have vertical palsy. I find it hard to look up and down. Stairs, ladders and walking is hard.

Anyone else with this issue??

 

[Arlyss]

Hi Burnerman,

I am so sorry to read about the effects you have had after surgery. I am just wondering a little more about what happened to you. Was your surgery an emergency due to the dissection? Were you evaulated for a stroke? I am wondering if a neurologist or neuropsycologist has given an opinion about your symptoms?

My husband has had two open heart surgeries with just the "normal" cooling that is done with all heart surgeries. He had deep HCA when his aortic aneurysm was removed, with no problems associated at all. It was not an emergency, and he did not have dissection.

The heart lung machine is known to affect some people, most often short term memory problems. While my husband was not affected that way, many folks here will be able to describe that to you.

I do hope you can find some answers about what you are experiencing.

Arlyss

 

[aussigal]

Hi burnerman and WELCOME...

I dont know if what I experienced was similar to you but it seems somewhat similar. For the first few months (maybe 3-4) after my surgery I could not read anything and if I did I got dizzy and my eyes went all woozy and they felt weird.

I wonder if a neuro. consult would be able to offer you some answers. Many of us suffer from a brain-fog (some call it pump-head ) type of thing with various memory type problems but these dont seem to be as disabling as what you describe.

Good luck in finding an answer