Catie
Well-known member
Hi All,
I'm grateful to be on the other side. Have steered through a few bumps and I'm still in Cleveland as they work to help me resolve things.
With Cleveland Clinic, you meet your surgeon the day before your operation. That day, the surgeon worked on a man's fifth open heart surgery and the day ran long. By the time he became available, there was little time and two other families needed to meet with him also. He told me he planned to do an aortoplasty on me, a procedure I'd never heard of, instead of replacing my diseased aorta with a dacron graft, as I'd understood for eight years was the procedure of choice. He mentioned that with an aortoplasty, there's a chance the aneurysm can return. I was freaked out, but I had to sign and leave! I went to the hospital early, requested a nurse in authority and told her that I HAD to meet with the surgeon briefly before the operation. She wasn't pleased but called and told him--he had a surgery ahead of mine. A few hours later, he came and found me in preop, and I told him I was too anxious that the aneurysm could return, to go forward with the procedure he planned. He laid both his hands on mine and said, "We'll replace it, then." Whew.
He later told me my aorta turned out to be too thin to do the aortoplasty, so he wouldn't have done it anyway. So... my aortic valve, aortic root, ascending aorta and part of aortic arch were replaced.
I was in ICU three days. A chest tube they placed on my right side was excruciating and the nurses removed it as soon as they safely could. I ended up with some fluid surrounding both lungs, so they did a procedure to drain liquid out of the right side. These things led to pleuritis, inflammation near my lungs, so for a week, it hurt lots to breathe and do my required breathing exercises.
There has also been afib. When it happens, my chest feels inside like a washing machine with a big load got off balance during the spin cycle.I'm on a cocktail of meds for it, as well as warfarin, which all the drs had wanted to keep me away from b/c of gastric issues. "Something" or maybe more than one something in my lineup of meds is irritating my stomach. But right now, heart has to be more important than tummy.
They released me from the hospital to the on-campus hotel Wednesday. Friday, I had re-testing and a post op appointment with a cardiac nurse practitioner. But while I was getting ready for my appointments early that morning, I felt afib start up again. This was the third episode. I spent all day having repeat EKGs and seeing the CNP over and over, while they tried to stabilize me figure out what to, since I was scheduled to fly home Saturday. Eventually some medication returned my heart to normal sinus rhythm. But it didn't seem wise to fly out on the heels of that and risk trouble on my way home. My blood levels also hadn't started to move from the warfarin and I have a portion of a lung that hasn't reinflated. So, I'm staying at the hotel, with instructions to zoom to their ER if I get afib again. I'll have another set of tests and see another CNP Monday morning, when they may consider letting me fly home.
Tonight my heart rate was too low. Got through to a dr, who said to skip 3rd dose of beta blocker. (But at 2 a day the afib returned.) I hope this won't be hard to regulate.
I am sooo grateful to be out of that hospital. I suffered a lot of nausea while there. I can't find a good way to sleep even at the hotel, but I've created a slope of sorts on the bed. Best I can do to try and catnap in the night.
I'm praying the afib will be resolved...
I'm grateful to be on the other side. Have steered through a few bumps and I'm still in Cleveland as they work to help me resolve things.
With Cleveland Clinic, you meet your surgeon the day before your operation. That day, the surgeon worked on a man's fifth open heart surgery and the day ran long. By the time he became available, there was little time and two other families needed to meet with him also. He told me he planned to do an aortoplasty on me, a procedure I'd never heard of, instead of replacing my diseased aorta with a dacron graft, as I'd understood for eight years was the procedure of choice. He mentioned that with an aortoplasty, there's a chance the aneurysm can return. I was freaked out, but I had to sign and leave! I went to the hospital early, requested a nurse in authority and told her that I HAD to meet with the surgeon briefly before the operation. She wasn't pleased but called and told him--he had a surgery ahead of mine. A few hours later, he came and found me in preop, and I told him I was too anxious that the aneurysm could return, to go forward with the procedure he planned. He laid both his hands on mine and said, "We'll replace it, then." Whew.
He later told me my aorta turned out to be too thin to do the aortoplasty, so he wouldn't have done it anyway. So... my aortic valve, aortic root, ascending aorta and part of aortic arch were replaced.
I was in ICU three days. A chest tube they placed on my right side was excruciating and the nurses removed it as soon as they safely could. I ended up with some fluid surrounding both lungs, so they did a procedure to drain liquid out of the right side. These things led to pleuritis, inflammation near my lungs, so for a week, it hurt lots to breathe and do my required breathing exercises.
There has also been afib. When it happens, my chest feels inside like a washing machine with a big load got off balance during the spin cycle.I'm on a cocktail of meds for it, as well as warfarin, which all the drs had wanted to keep me away from b/c of gastric issues. "Something" or maybe more than one something in my lineup of meds is irritating my stomach. But right now, heart has to be more important than tummy.
They released me from the hospital to the on-campus hotel Wednesday. Friday, I had re-testing and a post op appointment with a cardiac nurse practitioner. But while I was getting ready for my appointments early that morning, I felt afib start up again. This was the third episode. I spent all day having repeat EKGs and seeing the CNP over and over, while they tried to stabilize me figure out what to, since I was scheduled to fly home Saturday. Eventually some medication returned my heart to normal sinus rhythm. But it didn't seem wise to fly out on the heels of that and risk trouble on my way home. My blood levels also hadn't started to move from the warfarin and I have a portion of a lung that hasn't reinflated. So, I'm staying at the hotel, with instructions to zoom to their ER if I get afib again. I'll have another set of tests and see another CNP Monday morning, when they may consider letting me fly home.
Tonight my heart rate was too low. Got through to a dr, who said to skip 3rd dose of beta blocker. (But at 2 a day the afib returned.) I hope this won't be hard to regulate.
I am sooo grateful to be out of that hospital. I suffered a lot of nausea while there. I can't find a good way to sleep even at the hotel, but I've created a slope of sorts on the bed. Best I can do to try and catnap in the night.
I'm praying the afib will be resolved...
