Ruth is Home! :)

[WayneGM]

Welcome home. Glad to hear everything is going so well.
I lived on ice chips the first couple of days...best thing ever invented since sliced bread!

Take it easy and get well soon.

 

[Guest]

RUTH!!!!

So good to see that you are HOME!!! Welcome back .

Thoughts/prayers for continued good recovery for you.



Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker
PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort
"It's just a matter of time" ... TG Sheppard ... 'Somewhere Down The Line'

 

[Nan]

HI Ruth, and welcome to the other side of the mountain! What a very complete account of your experiences you have written when you are just out of the hospital! Shows you are doing really well that you can concentrate to that degree.

Keep on with that recovery and don't forget the resting part!

 

[ruth]

Thanks all for the encouragement and advice. Interesting ideas about the TEE and sore throat, I wonder if the side incision changed the angle they were working with and therefore led to this. I presume I was propped up on my side instead of the usual "snow-angel" position.

David - you're exactly right - in that moment those ice chips were better than ANYTHING - including ***! If I could have moved I would have pushed my bed over to the icemaker and started eating them directly out of the dispenser.

I was lucky that I didn't have any nausea at all, I had chosen to eat very small meals in the couple of days leading up to the surgery to try to ward that off, I'd like to think it helped.

The orchids and the boys all seem happy to have mom home, even if she's just sitting here getting waited on.

Thanks again,
Ruth

 

[susieq14]

Ruth,

What a wonderful post - very inspirational to those of us in the waiting room. Thank you! I'm very glad that all went well for you and wish you a continued smooth recovery.

All the best to you and your family,
Susie

 

[Susan BAV]

Welcome back, Ruth! Glad you got a 20+ year repair! And ice chips - I begged and whined to get more throughout the whole night, watching the clock and begging the nurse for more each time the clock would pass to the time she said I could have more ice chips. A guy recovering right on the other side of a curtain from me that first night violently tossed his cookies; and from the sound of it and from his nurse's reaction, it went everywhere and got all over the equipment next to his bed, etc. That's why they ration that precious and delicious and marvelous ICE!

 

[Marguerite53]

Ruth. You sound really wonderful. Congratulations on your successful journey over the mountain. I'm glad your orchids have survived your absence. I looked over your website last week and marvelled over their beauty and your industriousness. Family first, of course, but those plants must have been a lovely thing to come home to!

Ice chips! I remember precious little of CICU (I guess I requested those amnesia drugs and they worked!). But I DO remember looking over at a cup of ice chips, and trying to get my hand to reach them (they were literally by my bedside) and having the world go all topsy turvey (psychedelic music included, probably!) and then laughing to myself that I just could not get my hand to grasp them and thinking, "man...I am really stoned!! " It all happened in a second because the nurse was right over to give me some and then I drifted right back into nano-nano-land.

Enjoy your recovery (honest! it's possible!!) and let those men wait on you hand and foot. When will you EVER get that to happen again??

Good job!! Marguerite

 

[ruth]

Thanks all. On the agenda for today is my first walk outside of the house to the greenhouse (all of 12 feet away from the back door). That's going to be a big treat for me. I remember in the CICU giving the nurse advice on how to bloom her two Cosco orchids she had picked up, I guess some hobbies run pretty deep! Maybe that's why I got the extra helping of ice chips!

 

[BDMc]

Well Done!

Well Done!

You're on the easy side of the mountain now. It does require a lot of patience though so be forwarned! When I had my surgery, I'd had experience with Oxygen, and the dryness. I requested in advance that they give me moisture with it. That makes all the difference. My surgeon is long retired now, but I saw him last year, and he is still well known, though now it's for growing orchids! His name is Wilford Neptune. Boy does he light up when he can talk about his plants! Listen to our brothers and sisters here, and you will do very well! All the best, Brian

 

[francie12]

Congratulations from a former fellow-Washingtonian! That was a great description and an inspiring one--so glad you got the repair! Take it easy...and enjoy the TLC!

 

[Guest]

I guess some hobbies run pretty deep!

LOL! Indeed they do! I've been told by my parents, sis and best friend that, after they gave me the "sleeping meds" right before my 2003 surgery, I was blabbing something about Monte Carlos. Go figure .


As for those ice chips ... oh, what a precious commodity those were . And, in some ways, I still love 'em .



Cort:33swm."Mr Monte Carlo.Mr Road Trip".pig valve.pacemaker
PICS:lego.HO.model.MCinfo.RT.CHD = http://www.chevyasylum.com/cort
"Finding out the hard way what freedom means" ... Baillie and the Boys ... 'Wilder Days'

 

[ptoddy]

Glad to hear you are doing so well Ruth.Keep it up.

Paul

 

[ruth]

My surgeon is long retired now, but I saw him last year, and he is still well known, though now it's for growing orchids! His name is Wilford Neptune. Boy does he light up when he can talk about his plants!

Wow, small world! Yes, I've heard of Dr. Neptune, he's a very good orchid grower. He wrote an article for Orchid magazine I believe and I got all excited about his favorite type of orchid, the one he was writing about, because he had a picture of a cultivar that was named "Ruth". I still have that plant on my wish list to add to my collection someday (ahem, my orchid wish list is pretty big.... )

Amazing, I didn't realize he was a cardiac surgeon, I figured the Dr. was for a PHD in biology or something plant related!

Yes, I'm trying to listen to the folks here. I did a little too much yesterday but I don't want to become a "couch lump" either. Still looking for the right balance.

Take care,
Ruth

 

[StretchL]

But I DO remember looking over at a cup of ice chips, and trying to get my hand to reach them (they were literally by my bedside) and having the world go all topsy turvey (psychedelic music included, probably!) and then laughing to myself that I just could not get my hand to grasp them and thinking, "man...I am really stoned!! " It all happened in a second because the nurse was right over to give me some and then I drifted right back into nano-nano-land.

LOL... I wonder what kind of crazy stuff I did in CICU that I don't remember!

 

[michellep]

Glad you're home Ruth. I worried about you while I was at the hospital...

 

[perkicar]

Ruth,

Glad you're home!! Its great to hear you're doing well and that you got a good repair.

Yeah I told my wife (with my mom present - while in ICU the first evening) that I would only say this once but "Right now these Ice Chips are better than ***!". Mike, my nurse, thought that was hilarious. My wife was slightly mortified that I would say that in front of my parents...

At the time - I MEANT IT! It was the best ice I have ever had!!

LOL--that ice was awesome!! I also remember them bringing me a lime popsicle in the middle of the night when I couldn't sleep and the guy next to me was being kind of rowdy. No, not in the bed LOL but in the ICU. Just a curtain between us.

 

[CathyK.]

Ruth - so glad to hear that you are doing so well as my date is drawing near. Keep up the good work and I will be praying for an uneventful recovery for you. Thanks for the post after surgery. It really helps!