revised date

[soccermom44]

Hi everyone...

My mom's surgery was re-scheduled for Nov. 18th. She just came back today from having a bunch of pre-op tests, and is scared to death!!! 5-6 hour surgery...they said 5 days or so in hospital. And she spent 2 hours with nurses saying what she will "look" like after surgery so as to be prepared. That really scared her!

What is the average recovery for something like this? How long before you feel normal? She's bummed that it's over the holidays.

Anyway, I'll let you know in a couple of weeks how it went.

Thanks.

 

[medtronic of borg]

prepairing one self

prepairing one self

Well first off being prepaired for how she will look directly after surgery, is prob. going to be more important to you and other significant others. It has been known to take people back a bit. So please you beware of it your self.

Second, Typically it takes about a year before she will be feeling like herself.

Tell her that I thought it was great the one time I had it done over a holliday. Lots of visiters and belive it or not good food!!!!

Med

 

[Bill Hall]

Soccermom - The numbers you posted look about average. My surgery was 11 hours, but I don't remember even one minute. I was in the hospital for 10 days, but once I was out of the ICU, it really wasn't a factor. I was more like a visitor, walking around the hallways. I think we are all scared to death going into the surgery, so be nice to your mother. No one told me what the scar would look like, and I never even thought about it, it was much smaller than I thought. Please tell your mother good luck from me, I will say a prayer on her day.

 

[pillarpaul]

SM,

I certainly understand the concern over the delay. Just when you're ready...

Your stats of 5-6 hours surgery and 5 days in hospital are the standard for this surgery - absolutely nothing unusual there. Don't forget that a lot of the "surgery" is not surgery but prepping, pre-surgery stuff (that's a technical term), post-op "cleanup", etc. My surgery went flawless and I was in for only 5 hours. I was on the heart lung machine for only over an hour - and that included a single bypass.

As Med said, what she will look like is for YOUR benefit, not hers. I didn't give a rat's behind as to what I looked like!

As for recovery time, that will vary widely from all of us. I know Med from prior postings had a tough time as did Ross. I was blessed with pure luck to have been on the opposite side. I felt good three weeks post-op and about 95% of the way six weeks post-op. The healing of the sternum does, however, take a long time no matter what. I think a lot depends on age, physical condition prior to surgery, physical rehab after surgery, and as I said, plain dumb luck.

As I recall she is having the surgery here at St. Joe's. Don't know if you folks are out of town but I work only about 2 miles from St. Joe's and if there's anything I can do for you or your mom, please drop me a PM and I will be glad to help.

Please tell her the surgery is life-saving and beats the alternative.

Paul