Post Op day 4

[cewilk]

I was discharged from the hospital this morning. So a total stay of 3 days and half of a morning. I was getting around pretty well on my own as far as getting dressed and using the bathroom. Don't have much of an appetite when I begin eating, but I haven't felt nauseous or anything.

My posture feels horrible. I feel a lot tension in my lower back and seems as if I'm almost hunched over when walking. I understand that's pretty normal though. Pain isn't too bad right now, the percocet is helping when I need it, pretty much puts me right to sleep. Deep breaths cause some discomfort, but it also feels kinda good to fully expand the lungs.

 

[Jkm7]

Sounds like you are doing great. Everything you wrote is very famliar and what many of us experience.
Keep up the good work.
All good news.

 

[DanielB]

I agree with Jkm7 - I wasn't even out of the hospital until day 10. The pain will subside and the tendency to compensate for the surgery done to your chest by slumping a bit will ease up soon.

Best of luck on a speedy recovery.

 

[Garrett]

Wow! That's great, just try to keep walking around!

 

[Racquetshopper]

Ross,

That is amazing! Prayers for continued speedy recovery for you.

 

[Boston Tiger]

The walks themselves will help with the posture problem. Just remember not to push things to hard, because your body will remind you that it is in recovery if you do!

 

[ESF]

I left the hospital after a week and definitely wasn't standing up straight. I was afraid that my posture would be permanently hunched, but as the weeks went by and things healed, I gradually straightened up. Walking helps. Back pain seems to be par for the course, and that, too, passed in a few weeks. At about four weeks, I started some gentle stretches lying flat on the floor, and that helped a lot.

Keep walking and resting, and things will improve every week.

 

[cewilk]

Thanks a lot everyone!

My walks are going really well. I'm not getting winded really at all. I actually climbed 4 flights of stairs in the hotel I'm at all at once just to see how I felt, that actually did wind me out a bit though. I'll update more later!

 

[cewilk]

Day 5:

this morning walked up and down 4 flights of stairs then walked 3/4 mile at a brisk pace. Could feel my heart beating pretty hard inside my chest, but maintained controlled breathing and speech. Haven't taken pain medication since last night. I still don't really feel like I need one right now either, so pretty happy about that.

 

[Lynlw]

Day 5:

this morning walked up and down 4 flights of stairs then walked 3/4 mile at a brisk pace. Could feel my heart beating pretty hard inside my chest, but maintained controlled breathing and speech. Haven't taken pain medication since last night. I still don't really feel like I need one right now either, so pretty happy about that.

I'm glad to hear things are going so well for you.Keep up the great work. Remember your only "job" the next few weeks is exercise -walk and breathing, eat right, and get enough rest. Since you are feeling so well considerring everything, the hardest part for you might be to remember not to do too much, or lift anything to heavy and rest when you need to, so you dont have any big set backs. And even tho it probably hurts, work on your posture now in the beginning or t can be alot tougher later on, also it really helps being able to get as much air in your lungs, which is important so close to heart surgery.

Im glad you were able to have the Ross, since i know staying in the service is important to you.

 

[Mike1952]

Wow! Amazing! I go in on Friday for my aortic valve replacement. The fact that you have done so well is very encouraging to me, although I am a lot older, so I won't expect to do quite as well as you have. Keep up the exercising and thanks for the updates!

 

[ThirstyM]

Keep up the hard work. Your results were very encouraging to me as well-to say the least.

 

[Rachel]

Really glad to hear that you're doing so well!!!

Rachel

 

[TheGymGuy]

Yeah buddy!!! Great job. Keep on walking and deep breathing. The activity level you are putting out is very good. More activity = faster recovery Keep up the great work.
Also, if you wanted to get off the pain meds, you can half the doze or take 1 pill less a day. Getting off of pain meds is always better slowly vs cold turkey. I think I have a blog post about that somewhere on here.

 

[cewilk]

thanks a lot everyone. y'all are f'ing awesome. thanks for the support and encouragement. I'll continue to update, probably starting at a week rate.

--gymguy: yeah I am trying to keep progressing a little every few days. trying to get back the old me as fast as you did! ha... yeah I am only taking 1-3 percocet a day now. I think I'll be switching to something OTC soon. I'm gonna have a bunch of percocets left over..

...anyone know the street value of percocet??? jk jk..:biggrin2:

 

[Bina]

thanks a lot everyone. y'all are f'ing awesome. thanks for the support and encouragement. I'll continue to update, probably starting at a week rate.

--gymguy: yeah I am trying to keep progressing a little every few days. trying to get back the old me as fast as you did! ha... yeah I am only taking 1-3 percocet a day now. I think I'll be switching to something OTC soon. I'm gonna have a bunch of percocets left over..

...anyone know the street value of percocet??? jk jk..:biggrin2:

Yeah, those cardiac nurses can be real pill pushers. They got super annoyed when I refused to take Oxy, but i really didn't want it.
And I also refused the codeine type of stuff, it just makes me sick. So I ended up doing okay on regular Tylenol.
Pace yourself, and remember it's okay to rest and be a bit lazy when you need it.

 

[cewilk]

Well, looks like I spoke too soon...

Woke up around 4am with a really sharp, isolated pain in between my ribs on the left side. Only feel it when I attempt to take a deep breath. Just got back from the doc. Chest xray looked good. Breathing and heart beat sound good. They assured me it was nothing serious, probably a small fracture in the ribs from the sternotomy, some pleural irritation...something minor. SOoooo needless to say I've taken more pain meds today than I have since I've been home. Hopefully this sharp pain will fade away soon.

 

[TheGymGuy]

Lots of folks posted on here about managing the pain and keeping the pain-killers steady to not run into an issue of sharp pain returning spontaneously. Here is my blog post on my "Getting off of pain meds" - http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/entry.php?58-Getting-off-of-Pain-Meds-Protocol

One thing that you posted rang a bell. When I was turning up my exercise capacity, there was once or twice that in the evening after my daily escapades I would feel a bit of pain in my right lung/side area. Interestingly, it would only feel funky (dull-medium sharp pain) on a very deep breath. Anyways, that sort of thing went away on its own within 2 days or so each time. My internet research pointed to pleural irritation as well. I did not see a doctor about this as the pain was manageable and I knew I was pushing the envelope a little bit. Still, if you have weird pains post here and see Dr. when in doubt.