I'm Comin' Home!
I'm Comin' Home!
That's it, just checked out. It was all WAY easier than I thought. I am completely amazed at the quality of service throughout this entire process. From the moment we got here there was never any confusion, or waiting for tests. All the staff was extremely professional and helpful, never rushed or bothered.
I'm in the library on the 7th floor here at Mayo (St. Mary's) and I've got some time to kill before we need to catch a cab to the airport so I'll try to give a detailed account.
We arrived on Wed (5/22) the day before surgery to meet with Dr. Kenton Zehr and Dr. Abbass (Dr. Zehr's chief resident) both were completely up to date on my condition and had thoroughly gone over my tests and charts prior to our appt. We got to his office 1/2 hr early and they were in talking to us within 10 mins. Dr. Zehr's bedside manner was very reassuring, he was confident and answered any questions or concerns I had. At that time he told me there was maybe a 60/40 chance that they could repair the valve and make it a functional bi-cuspid valve, he went over the numbers and the success rates and that sounded really good. He said he wouldn't be sure until he was in there. In the event that it was not repairable we were going to go with the Crolife Synergraft Aortic valve and root replacement, this was all chosen by me ahead of time. I was wondering if there was a chance of having to make a 2nd choice of valve and he reassured me that regardless of what he found the Synergraft would work for me. After our meeting with the doctors we met briefly with 2 ladies that were running the Synergraft study and they went over it all with us. I also had an ekg right there and then we were done with Zehr's office.
At that point we were sent to the lab for a blood draw and to x-ray for a chest film. Both were very quick and painless, from there we went to the 1st floor to talk about the general surgery issues and received Hibiclens anti-bacterial scrub, Surgi-Grip hair removal and Bactroban nasal ointment.
We then went back to the hotel (which was a couple miles away near Mayo Clinic and Methodist) I didn't realize there were two completely separate campuses. That night I removed all the hair on my chest and upper legs, this took a while as I have more hair on my chest than on my head. We called the hospital to find out exactly what time to arrive the next day, they do not finalize surgical schedules for the next day until after 8 pm. I went to bed breathing much easier from the excellent and reassuring meeting with Dr. Zehr and the orderly fashion in which every thing was handled.
The next morning we woke up at 5 am and headed to the hospital, we waited and the lobby with the other morning surgery patients and families. They took us up a few at a time to get prepped. My family and I (wife Rebecca and parents) were put in a room and were briefed on Advanced Directives and a heparin study that I elected to be in. I put a gown and slippers on and waited to be taken for anesthesia. After a few minutes and some hugs and kisses I was off.
The anesthetic ward was fairly large (12-14 people, I think) and was partitioned by curtains. I was asked at least 6 times who I was and exactly what procedure I was in for. Then was taken into the operating room and put on the table. The anasthesiologists were very personable and put me at ease, I had some laughing gas and they started an IV then lights out.
I woke up in ICU with the ventilator on with my nurse Andrea and my wife and parents. I got frustrated and agitated with the vent on because I was trying to breathe on my own and not relaxing enough. I was still pretty out of it and gagging on the vent, Andrea gave me some morphine and I chilled out for an hour or so. I told my wife that morning that as soon as I woke up I wanted to know whether I had the Synergraft or the repair and how long I was on the pump. When I woke up again I was gagging on the vent but much more lucid, I motioned to my wife and she told me I had the Synergraft and had been on the pump for 135 minutes. I didn't know why I was still on the vent and kept gesturing and writing on a piece of paper that I wanted it out. Finally they took it out and I was breathing on my own with absolutely no problems. I was sure that from the time the first time and when I got off the vent was no more than 5 minutes, I later found out it was about 2 hours. I slept pretty much the rest of the day, and was quite comfortable. That night I only slept about 1 hr, but I felt fine, just not tired.
During the night after surgery I felt surprisingly good, I was able to crank the breathing tube all the way to the top (my nurse said she had never seen that so quick.) I spent the night listening to music and talking to the nurse (they have semi-private ICU rooms with 2 patients ea and 1 nurse) the rooms are all connected with wide sliding doors and are situated in a square around the doctors's/nurses station in the middle. The next morning around 9am my pressure dropped for just under a minute then came back up too high for the next few hours. During this time I could feel my heart pounding and had a few PVCs (6-8). By the evening I felt fine again and could not feel my heart beat a bit, I haven't felt another PVC since. I was on some pretty strong BP meds to keep and they were going to keep me in ICU until weened off. By 7 pm I was off the bp meds and in a private room Bp was 130/75 or so.
.... To be continued ( if you made it this far you probably need a break anyway) I need to catch a cab to the airport.
Ps. Huge thanks to John Cochran who stopped in with a MN goodie bag and Jennie Harris who sent a magazine and very nice card. They really made my day (more on this later!)
Brooks McIntyre
Synergraft AVR / Aortic Root
5/23/02 - Dr. Kenton Zehr - Mayo Clinic
