palmaceae
Well-known member
Here is my story of my AVR surgery.
I wanted to write all this down before I forget it, even though there are certain parts I would like to forget
. I had my aortic valve replaced on Tuesday March 10th, 2009 at Alexian Bros Hospital in Elk Grove Village IL. I am 46 years old. My surgeon was Dr. Henry Sullivan (excellent surgeon BTW). He has been practicing for 43+ years and has excellent qualifications.
My aortic valve was replaced with a Carpentier-Edwards PERIMOUNT Magna pericardial aortic bioprosthesis with ThermaFix process, Model # 3000TFX. It?s a bovine tissue valve. (MOO!) The surgeon later told us how bad the valve was leaking when he got in there, he said I was very lucky to have this done because within a year I would have had serious issues. God blessed me so much to lead me to this surgeon before it got too serious!
I arrived at the hospital 5:30am, took me in at 6:30am, I remember being wheeled into the operating room but before that when they were prepping me and started wheeling me into the operating room where I said my "love you" to my wife, I got a bit choked up, I was a bit emotional at that point (yes I am an emotional guy) but I was not really feeling scared. Of course instead of coming up with something really memorable to say, I said "lets get her done" .
I then remember having the wrist catheter put in. Actually I felt like Jesus Christ with His arms outreached being ready to be crucified. Of course His pain was much worse but that is what I thought of while laying there. I was in a fog but I do remember the warm lights and people talking. I sort of remember the neck swan catheter being inserted, (just a short note on needles, I hate needles and was more worried about the catheters then I was with the actual surgery) then I remember just everything fading away.
Started surgery around 9:30am (I heard the surgeon had an emergency procedure to go to so I had to wait a little while but I was pretty well sedated at that point).
Surgery was finished up around 12:45pm.
2:30pm my wife and daughter saw me for the first time. They tell me it was a freighting sight seeing me attached to so many things. Let me stop right here and just tell you how wonderful my wife is, I am very blessed to have her as my best friend, she was with me every second that was possible, and I could not have gone through this at all without the Lord and without her. She was my private nurse for the entire time!
She said when she first saw me awake it was traumatic to her, my hands and arms were swollen and I was very pale. She said my eyes were open and I squeezed her hand, but I had tears in my eyes and looked like I was in pain. The breathing tube has just been removed I choked trying to speak I said, ?It hurts.? They were trying to regulate the pain medication and the morphine was not working. Even though we were warned what I would look like, there is no way you can really expect what your love one will look like after this major surgery.
My next memory is being in the CICU looking at my red socks, kind of like tunnel vision, and moving my feet and feeling like there is something wrong, just a bunch of weird feelings, but I don?t remember anyone talking, even though my wife said she was talking to me. I do remember the incredible pain and the worst feeling I have ever felt in my life. Now before we say that may have been poor pain management, you need to understand me, I can not take codeine or vicodine, and do not react well with most medications. I can not really describe the true feelings I had but it was not pleasant. They told my wife I was in pain and was trying to regulate the morphine for it to help me, took a while to do that. The feeling I had was indescribable, awful and terrible. I know some people here said their pain was not too bad but for me it was quite different. I guess medications work differently for different people. It was not just the pain, but the all around terrible "sick" feeling, that is what I could not get my mind around.
The surgeon likes to remove the breathing tube before his patients wake up, thank God but I had to be breathing on my own. So they keep me asleep until 5:30am Wednesday morning when they took the breathing tube out, so I have no memory of that at all. It was a very strange feeling trying to breathe after this, amazing how hard that really was, seems I could not get my lungs to open all the way, but it got steadily better everyday. But I had my trusty spirometer with me.
8:00am Wednesday is when I started to really remember things.
I remained in CICU until Wednesday around 4:30pm, so about 16 hours there.
I was moved to the cardiac floor where I was rewarded with a private room!
I was there from Wednesday to Monday March 16th at 3:00pm, a total of 6 days and 9 1/2 hours in the hospital.
During my time in CICU, I do not remember much except that I did have my heart pillow, and after the pain management kicked in I started taking things in and remembering a bit more. One of my first memories was wow, this was A LOT harder then I thought this would be.
During my time there I had a couple complications; the first was Post-Pericardiotomy Syndrome (PPS). They told me it is not that uncommon for that to happen. The way they explained it is it is an inflammation of the pericardium (the sack that surrounds the heart). They gave me prednisone for that and still taking it for a while. The 2nd complication was fluid in my lungs, they were afraid of pneumonia. I am taking antibiotics for a week.
Here are some highlights of the days I was there.
Wednesday,
Was in a lot of pain, very out of it, had an xray. Had an xray done everyday because fluid build up in my lungs. Ate for the first time, had the 2 drain tubes taken out and the foley tube out. The 2 drain tubes was NOT fun, to me it felt like someone trying to vacuum out your insides! The foley was not too bad, as I had kidney stones last year with some complications and had a foley in for a week, so no surprise there. Had a Heparin shot everyday in the belly, ouch! I was also getting daily blood sugar test and insulin shots, seems this is normal for post op of major surgery. Also everyday the respiratory therapist would give me 3 breathing treatments which included pounding me in the back to break up the fluid, that was not much fun either. Took my first walk later in the day when I was in the new room. The cardiac therapist would come 3 days in a row to get me walking. I also took Darvocet everyday for pain and these pain patches (can't remember what they were called).
Thursday,
Was in new room, still out of it, noticed my groin was sore on one side, they must have inserted 2 catheters in both femoral arteries during the surgery, xrays. Ate again, but not much of an appetite.
Friday,
Was feeling a little more alert, xray, had the smaller drain tube removed, thought this tube would be easier then the larger 2, to me, it still felt bad! Started giving me cortisone for the PPS.
Saturday,
Was feeling a bit more normal, was actually feeling human again, xray again, had the pacer wires removed, now I thought the pacer wires would be the easiest to take out, boy was I wrong. Don?t know how many people know how it is attached to your heart but the wire has a curly queue end that is physically in the tissue of your heart. They have to pull it very slowly, with each heart beat, I held my wife's hand and they pulled gently and slowly, it felt as my heart was coming out with it, it was one of the worse experiences I had in the hospital. When the nurse pulled it out, she showed me the wire and how the wire had a curly queue end and that it had no heart tissue on it, I thought that was probably a good thing! Had an echo because of the PPS.
Sunday,
Was wondering when I could get out of the hospital, xray, taken off oxygen.
Monday
Released from the hospital, before I left they take a echo of the spot in my groin, was still sore and they found out it was a 4 cm hematoma, I thought I told the nurses about it before Monday but I did not really notice it unless I washed there, very tender and sore.
Alexian Bros Cardiac unit is wonderful! I know a lot of people talk about the other good hospitals in the area like Northwestern and Loyola but Alexian Bros. is one of the best cardiac units in the Chicagoland area.
I hope this helps in some way on my open heart surgery went, everyone's experiences differ and I am just glad I am on this side of the mountain! I still have a ways to go but I am headed in the right direction! I thank God my family and I made it through this, the Lord was my strength and my refuge.
God Bless,
I wanted to write all this down before I forget it, even though there are certain parts I would like to forget
. I had my aortic valve replaced on Tuesday March 10th, 2009 at Alexian Bros Hospital in Elk Grove Village IL. I am 46 years old. My surgeon was Dr. Henry Sullivan (excellent surgeon BTW). He has been practicing for 43+ years and has excellent qualifications.My aortic valve was replaced with a Carpentier-Edwards PERIMOUNT Magna pericardial aortic bioprosthesis with ThermaFix process, Model # 3000TFX. It?s a bovine tissue valve. (MOO!) The surgeon later told us how bad the valve was leaking when he got in there, he said I was very lucky to have this done because within a year I would have had serious issues. God blessed me so much to lead me to this surgeon before it got too serious!
I arrived at the hospital 5:30am, took me in at 6:30am, I remember being wheeled into the operating room but before that when they were prepping me and started wheeling me into the operating room where I said my "love you" to my wife, I got a bit choked up, I was a bit emotional at that point (yes I am an emotional guy
) but I was not really feeling scared. Of course instead of coming up with something really memorable to say, I said "lets get her done" . I then remember having the wrist catheter put in. Actually I felt like Jesus Christ with His arms outreached being ready to be crucified. Of course His pain was much worse but that is what I thought of while laying there. I was in a fog but I do remember the warm lights and people talking. I sort of remember the neck swan catheter being inserted, (just a short note on needles, I hate needles and was more worried about the catheters then I was with the actual surgery) then I remember just everything fading away.
Started surgery around 9:30am (I heard the surgeon had an emergency procedure to go to so I had to wait a little while but I was pretty well sedated at that point).
Surgery was finished up around 12:45pm.
2:30pm my wife and daughter saw me for the first time. They tell me it was a freighting sight seeing me attached to so many things. Let me stop right here and just tell you how wonderful my wife is, I am very blessed to have her as my best friend, she was with me every second that was possible, and I could not have gone through this at all without the Lord and without her. She was my private nurse for the entire time!
She said when she first saw me awake it was traumatic to her, my hands and arms were swollen and I was very pale. She said my eyes were open and I squeezed her hand, but I had tears in my eyes and looked like I was in pain. The breathing tube has just been removed I choked trying to speak I said, ?It hurts.? They were trying to regulate the pain medication and the morphine was not working. Even though we were warned what I would look like, there is no way you can really expect what your love one will look like after this major surgery.
My next memory is being in the CICU looking at my red socks, kind of like tunnel vision, and moving my feet and feeling like there is something wrong, just a bunch of weird feelings, but I don?t remember anyone talking, even though my wife said she was talking to me. I do remember the incredible pain and the worst feeling I have ever felt in my life. Now before we say that may have been poor pain management, you need to understand me, I can not take codeine or vicodine, and do not react well with most medications. I can not really describe the true feelings I had but it was not pleasant. They told my wife I was in pain and was trying to regulate the morphine for it to help me, took a while to do that. The feeling I had was indescribable, awful and terrible. I know some people here said their pain was not too bad but for me it was quite different. I guess medications work differently for different people. It was not just the pain, but the all around terrible "sick" feeling, that is what I could not get my mind around.
The surgeon likes to remove the breathing tube before his patients wake up, thank God but I had to be breathing on my own. So they keep me asleep until 5:30am Wednesday morning when they took the breathing tube out, so I have no memory of that at all. It was a very strange feeling trying to breathe after this, amazing how hard that really was, seems I could not get my lungs to open all the way, but it got steadily better everyday. But I had my trusty spirometer with me.
8:00am Wednesday is when I started to really remember things.
I remained in CICU until Wednesday around 4:30pm, so about 16 hours there.
I was moved to the cardiac floor where I was rewarded with a private room!
I was there from Wednesday to Monday March 16th at 3:00pm, a total of 6 days and 9 1/2 hours in the hospital.
During my time in CICU, I do not remember much except that I did have my heart pillow, and after the pain management kicked in I started taking things in and remembering a bit more. One of my first memories was wow, this was A LOT harder then I thought this would be.
During my time there I had a couple complications; the first was Post-Pericardiotomy Syndrome (PPS). They told me it is not that uncommon for that to happen. The way they explained it is it is an inflammation of the pericardium (the sack that surrounds the heart). They gave me prednisone for that and still taking it for a while. The 2nd complication was fluid in my lungs, they were afraid of pneumonia. I am taking antibiotics for a week.
Here are some highlights of the days I was there.
Wednesday,
Was in a lot of pain, very out of it, had an xray. Had an xray done everyday because fluid build up in my lungs. Ate for the first time, had the 2 drain tubes taken out and the foley tube out. The 2 drain tubes was NOT fun, to me it felt like someone trying to vacuum out your insides! The foley was not too bad, as I had kidney stones last year with some complications and had a foley in for a week, so no surprise there. Had a Heparin shot everyday in the belly, ouch! I was also getting daily blood sugar test and insulin shots, seems this is normal for post op of major surgery. Also everyday the respiratory therapist would give me 3 breathing treatments which included pounding me in the back to break up the fluid, that was not much fun either. Took my first walk later in the day when I was in the new room. The cardiac therapist would come 3 days in a row to get me walking. I also took Darvocet everyday for pain and these pain patches (can't remember what they were called).
Thursday,
Was in new room, still out of it, noticed my groin was sore on one side, they must have inserted 2 catheters in both femoral arteries during the surgery, xrays. Ate again, but not much of an appetite.
Friday,
Was feeling a little more alert, xray, had the smaller drain tube removed, thought this tube would be easier then the larger 2, to me, it still felt bad! Started giving me cortisone for the PPS.
Saturday,
Was feeling a bit more normal, was actually feeling human again, xray again, had the pacer wires removed, now I thought the pacer wires would be the easiest to take out, boy was I wrong. Don?t know how many people know how it is attached to your heart but the wire has a curly queue end that is physically in the tissue of your heart. They have to pull it very slowly, with each heart beat, I held my wife's hand and they pulled gently and slowly, it felt as my heart was coming out with it, it was one of the worse experiences I had in the hospital. When the nurse pulled it out, she showed me the wire and how the wire had a curly queue end and that it had no heart tissue on it, I thought that was probably a good thing! Had an echo because of the PPS.
Sunday,
Was wondering when I could get out of the hospital, xray, taken off oxygen.
Monday
Released from the hospital, before I left they take a echo of the spot in my groin, was still sore and they found out it was a 4 cm hematoma, I thought I told the nurses about it before Monday but I did not really notice it unless I washed there, very tender and sore.
Alexian Bros Cardiac unit is wonderful! I know a lot of people talk about the other good hospitals in the area like Northwestern and Loyola but Alexian Bros. is one of the best cardiac units in the Chicagoland area.
I hope this helps in some way on my open heart surgery went, everyone's experiences differ and I am just glad I am on this side of the mountain! I still have a ways to go but I am headed in the right direction! I thank God my family and I made it through this, the Lord was my strength and my refuge.
God Bless,
