J
jbrown413
Hi everyone. Haven't visited for a while since I had my second surgery last January. Doing GREAT!!! My father-in-law though is scheduled for a mitral valve replacement and possible double by-pass next week, and I promised him some advice. Here is what I sent him about the bedding situation after surgery. Thought you might find it helpful...
Here is some more advice as you prepare for the great adventure of open heart surgery. This is the owner?s manual for your hospital bed, and how you are going to want to simulate it at home during recovery.
It sounds like you are going to have a complete sternotomy. If they do a less invasive procedure, these recommendations may not be best.
After a sternotomy, it is very painful to sit up from a prone position. This is because you have to use your arms for leverage, which are attached to your torso, which puts pressure on your sternum, or breastbone, which is essentially broken.
When you are in the hospital you will be in a hospital bed, which is controllable by buttons on the handrail. There are a number of them. The ones you want to locate are the ones that elevate the head of the bed and the knee section of the bed. After surgery you are going to be sitting in the bed as if you were in a lazy boy lounge chair. You are going to want to have your upper body elevated. This decreases pain when you try to get out of bed. But if you just raise the upper section, you are going to slide down the bed and end up prone, so you are also going to want to elevate your knees, creating a valley that your torso lies in. Then when you want to get out of bed, you can elevate the head portion more, and once in sitting position lower your knees, so can just turn your body and slide out of bed, without putting any pressure from your arms onto your sternum.
When you get home you won?t have the advantage of a hospital bed, but you can replicate it. I will bring you a wedge pillow that serves as the foundation for this. Then use lots of pillows to recreate the same type of contraption. Use more pillows to build up the upper support as you like it, and 1 or 2 to put under your knees to keep yourself from sliding down.
If you are very uncomfortable in the bed, you might try sleeping in your lounge chair. I knew one fellow, my neighbor?s dad, Morris (who told me he had 9 lives, and that he only used 3 in Dachau) who slept in a lounger for the rest of his life after by-pass surgery. You won?t have to sleep in the lounger forever though (unless Marcy makes you). By 6 weeks or so you?ll be as good as new. You?ll even be able to lie flat and roll over if you wish to.
This is will make a great a difference in your comfort. I didn?t know about it the first surgery, and tried to sleep flat on my back, because of course I couldn?t roll over, as my breast was broken. Getting out of bed was very painful! After my second surgery I made Jeanne take me pillow shopping almost everyday, so I could build my throne (as she called it) every night.
Here is some more advice as you prepare for the great adventure of open heart surgery. This is the owner?s manual for your hospital bed, and how you are going to want to simulate it at home during recovery.
It sounds like you are going to have a complete sternotomy. If they do a less invasive procedure, these recommendations may not be best.
After a sternotomy, it is very painful to sit up from a prone position. This is because you have to use your arms for leverage, which are attached to your torso, which puts pressure on your sternum, or breastbone, which is essentially broken.
When you are in the hospital you will be in a hospital bed, which is controllable by buttons on the handrail. There are a number of them. The ones you want to locate are the ones that elevate the head of the bed and the knee section of the bed. After surgery you are going to be sitting in the bed as if you were in a lazy boy lounge chair. You are going to want to have your upper body elevated. This decreases pain when you try to get out of bed. But if you just raise the upper section, you are going to slide down the bed and end up prone, so you are also going to want to elevate your knees, creating a valley that your torso lies in. Then when you want to get out of bed, you can elevate the head portion more, and once in sitting position lower your knees, so can just turn your body and slide out of bed, without putting any pressure from your arms onto your sternum.
When you get home you won?t have the advantage of a hospital bed, but you can replicate it. I will bring you a wedge pillow that serves as the foundation for this. Then use lots of pillows to recreate the same type of contraption. Use more pillows to build up the upper support as you like it, and 1 or 2 to put under your knees to keep yourself from sliding down.
If you are very uncomfortable in the bed, you might try sleeping in your lounge chair. I knew one fellow, my neighbor?s dad, Morris (who told me he had 9 lives, and that he only used 3 in Dachau) who slept in a lounger for the rest of his life after by-pass surgery. You won?t have to sleep in the lounger forever though (unless Marcy makes you). By 6 weeks or so you?ll be as good as new. You?ll even be able to lie flat and roll over if you wish to.
This is will make a great a difference in your comfort. I didn?t know about it the first surgery, and tried to sleep flat on my back, because of course I couldn?t roll over, as my breast was broken. Getting out of bed was very painful! After my second surgery I made Jeanne take me pillow shopping almost everyday, so I could build my throne (as she called it) every night.
