L
lieb2101
Thanks once again everyone for your support and well wishes, this website is truly amazing.
So, one week ago right around this time, I was on the table and under circulatory arrest. My core was chilled down to 64 degrees and my brain was being fed blood reversed through my veins instead of my arteries. I underwent a seven hour surgery that replaced my unicuspid aortic valve with a Medtronix Freestyle Porcine valve and I also had about 5-6 inches of my ascending aorta replaced with Dacron all the way up into the arch. My surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Deeb at the University of Michigan Hospital.
Just as a little background, I'm 29, and have had a bad valve since birth. I recently discovered that my valve had caused a rather severe aneurysm likely due to my very active, stressful, and slightly overweight lifestyle. I knew that surgery was 1-6 years out before but with the discovery that I could keel over any minute, I took my surgeon's advice.
First off, I can't say enough about my Surgeon and his team. Dr. Deeb not only did an extraordinary job, but he also was great comfort to my family (especially my Mother). I was in the ICU for 4 days but mostly because there was no room in the step down unit. Every day I had drastic improvement. From what I remember, the two worst experiences were waking up and wanting the breathing tube OUT, the other was when they pulled out the chest drain tube... that sucked!
I had surgery last Tuesday and returned home on Saturday. The hour long bumpy drive home in the car wasn't fun but I was so excited to get home that it hardly mattered.
As for complications that still are bugging me:
I had major blood vessels rupture in both eyes, not sure how it happened but it looks freaky. They're slowly returning to normal but my vision has been screwed up a bit. I also had some bruising around both eyes.
All of my back muscles are in some really tight and painful knots but my wonderful wife has been working those out for me.
I've also had numbness and tingling in my fingers. Turns out that when they clamped me to the table, they hit a nerve in my elbow that runs up to the fingers. My left hand is back but I'm still having problems with a couple fingers on my right hand.
As for my overall condition, I'm in amazing shape considering what I went through. I can move around with no problem, getting up and down off the couch. Still can't sleep flat or in a bed though. My overall pain is only at a 2 (out of 10), I can shower, and pretty much take care of myself in almost every aspect (around the house anyway). Coughing is painful and I've been fortunate that I haven't encountered a sneeze yet. Most of the time I can't even feel my incision, other than it feels like someone has put tape on my chest. Also, the incision is healing VERY fast and it's nowhere near as bad or big as I thought it would be.
They've got me on Narco (Oxycodone & Tylenol), asprin, and motrin, for pain. I've found out the hard way that my condition deteriorates FAST if I miss a dose. I forgot to take the Narco at dinner time the other day and I ended up on the couch shivering and sweating and feeling like death until I figured out why. As long as I keep the drugs flowing I'm in good shape.
On a more sensitive note, I've only had a few B.M.s and I was suffering from stomach cramps for a few days. They had me taking Senna which I later found out is a particularly nasty laxative. I'm off that now and my stomach is ok again.
As for cognitive functionality, you can probably tell by my verbose post here that I don't think I suffered from the dreaded Pump Head or any other nasty brain complications. I think I'm still all here, and if not... well I don't miss it
If anything, I'm experiencing a slow re-aligning of priorities. There's nothing like being faced by death to get you to appreciate life.
All in all, I'm still humbled by how fortunate I am and I hope things continue to go well. While this experience was not easy by any means, it is not as bad as what I imagined. The waiting truly was the worst part.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading If anyone would like any more info on what I went and am going through, please let me know. Especially if I can be of any assistance to those of you not over the mountain yet...
Peace!
-Brian
So, one week ago right around this time, I was on the table and under circulatory arrest. My core was chilled down to 64 degrees and my brain was being fed blood reversed through my veins instead of my arteries. I underwent a seven hour surgery that replaced my unicuspid aortic valve with a Medtronix Freestyle Porcine valve and I also had about 5-6 inches of my ascending aorta replaced with Dacron all the way up into the arch. My surgery was performed by Dr. Michael Deeb at the University of Michigan Hospital.
Just as a little background, I'm 29, and have had a bad valve since birth. I recently discovered that my valve had caused a rather severe aneurysm likely due to my very active, stressful, and slightly overweight lifestyle. I knew that surgery was 1-6 years out before but with the discovery that I could keel over any minute, I took my surgeon's advice.
First off, I can't say enough about my Surgeon and his team. Dr. Deeb not only did an extraordinary job, but he also was great comfort to my family (especially my Mother). I was in the ICU for 4 days but mostly because there was no room in the step down unit. Every day I had drastic improvement. From what I remember, the two worst experiences were waking up and wanting the breathing tube OUT, the other was when they pulled out the chest drain tube... that sucked!
I had surgery last Tuesday and returned home on Saturday. The hour long bumpy drive home in the car wasn't fun but I was so excited to get home that it hardly mattered.
As for complications that still are bugging me:
I had major blood vessels rupture in both eyes, not sure how it happened but it looks freaky. They're slowly returning to normal but my vision has been screwed up a bit. I also had some bruising around both eyes.
All of my back muscles are in some really tight and painful knots but my wonderful wife has been working those out for me.
I've also had numbness and tingling in my fingers. Turns out that when they clamped me to the table, they hit a nerve in my elbow that runs up to the fingers. My left hand is back but I'm still having problems with a couple fingers on my right hand.
As for my overall condition, I'm in amazing shape considering what I went through. I can move around with no problem, getting up and down off the couch. Still can't sleep flat or in a bed though. My overall pain is only at a 2 (out of 10), I can shower, and pretty much take care of myself in almost every aspect (around the house anyway). Coughing is painful and I've been fortunate that I haven't encountered a sneeze yet. Most of the time I can't even feel my incision, other than it feels like someone has put tape on my chest. Also, the incision is healing VERY fast and it's nowhere near as bad or big as I thought it would be.
They've got me on Narco (Oxycodone & Tylenol), asprin, and motrin, for pain. I've found out the hard way that my condition deteriorates FAST if I miss a dose. I forgot to take the Narco at dinner time the other day and I ended up on the couch shivering and sweating and feeling like death until I figured out why. As long as I keep the drugs flowing I'm in good shape.
On a more sensitive note, I've only had a few B.M.s and I was suffering from stomach cramps for a few days. They had me taking Senna which I later found out is a particularly nasty laxative. I'm off that now and my stomach is ok again.
As for cognitive functionality, you can probably tell by my verbose post here that I don't think I suffered from the dreaded Pump Head or any other nasty brain complications. I think I'm still all here, and if not... well I don't miss it
If anything, I'm experiencing a slow re-aligning of priorities. There's nothing like being faced by death to get you to appreciate life.All in all, I'm still humbled by how fortunate I am and I hope things continue to go well. While this experience was not easy by any means, it is not as bad as what I imagined. The waiting truly was the worst part.
If you made it this far, thanks for reading
If anyone would like any more info on what I went and am going through, please let me know. Especially if I can be of any assistance to those of you not over the mountain yet...Peace!
-Brian
