A
ArleneT
It?s hard to believe that tomorrow it will be a year since my mitral valve repair. I was terrified before surgery and while I am well aware that things could have gone very differently, the pre-surgery part really was the worst part of the whole OHS experience. I hope if I describe a few things about my experience it may help someone down the road.
The absolute worst part was when I had to say goodbye to my husband and then lay shivering and afraid for an hour on a stretcher outside of the OR. I kept my eyes closed because I didn?t want to see a thing and then remember it later. It would have been wonderful to have had some ?happy juice? to calm my nerves, but they couldn?t give me anything because the anesthesiologist wanted to be able to take the breathing tube out before I left the OR and that would have delayed it. The silver lining of course was that I woke up with a dry mouth, but no breathing tube. My husband was there and I was so thrilled to see his smiling face and know that I had made it to the other side of the mountain!
I had a bad back ache, but anticipated that because I?ve had a bad back for years and being in that position for hours during the surgery didn?t exactly help. I was very surprised that I didn?t have any chest pain except when I had to cough or sneeze. From my first walk down the hall I knew I was ?fixed?. I just needed time to recover. It took a while for me to start getting my strength back, but I had been through surgery, chemo, and radiation in the year before my valve repair so I wasn?t in great shape going in.
I now go to a fitness center three times a week to do cardio and resistance training and due to the exercise and weight loss, my cardiologist cut my blood pressure medication dosage (Diovan HCT) in half recently. I still have quite a ways to go, but love how I feel when I am finished working out. Considering the fact that I couldn?t walk 20 feet this time last year without getting short of breath, I am thrilled with my progress.
To those of you in the waiting room who might read this, I wish you an uneventful surgery and a quick recovery. To everyone on this site, I thank you sincerely for your contributions and time spent making this one of the most helpful and welcoming sites on the web.
Arlene
The absolute worst part was when I had to say goodbye to my husband and then lay shivering and afraid for an hour on a stretcher outside of the OR. I kept my eyes closed because I didn?t want to see a thing and then remember it later. It would have been wonderful to have had some ?happy juice? to calm my nerves, but they couldn?t give me anything because the anesthesiologist wanted to be able to take the breathing tube out before I left the OR and that would have delayed it. The silver lining of course was that I woke up with a dry mouth, but no breathing tube. My husband was there and I was so thrilled to see his smiling face and know that I had made it to the other side of the mountain!
I had a bad back ache, but anticipated that because I?ve had a bad back for years and being in that position for hours during the surgery didn?t exactly help. I was very surprised that I didn?t have any chest pain except when I had to cough or sneeze. From my first walk down the hall I knew I was ?fixed?. I just needed time to recover. It took a while for me to start getting my strength back, but I had been through surgery, chemo, and radiation in the year before my valve repair so I wasn?t in great shape going in.
I now go to a fitness center three times a week to do cardio and resistance training and due to the exercise and weight loss, my cardiologist cut my blood pressure medication dosage (Diovan HCT) in half recently. I still have quite a ways to go, but love how I feel when I am finished working out. Considering the fact that I couldn?t walk 20 feet this time last year without getting short of breath, I am thrilled with my progress.
To those of you in the waiting room who might read this, I wish you an uneventful surgery and a quick recovery. To everyone on this site, I thank you sincerely for your contributions and time spent making this one of the most helpful and welcoming sites on the web.
Arlene
It's been over 15 months for me. I didn't know that by not having something to relax you that the breathing tube could come out sooner. They just told me they were going to give me a shot of morphine to relax me, and it relaxed me so much I don't remember anything after about one minute. I did wake up with the breathing tube, but I had practiced the scene in my mind so was not alarmed or agitated. Besides, I was so drugged up that it was only a minor frustration, and as soon as I heard about the results of the surgery from my husband and then the surgeon, I went back into la-la land until the tube was taken out. I am saying this to Jacqui (EiraCara) because I am the type of person to become very agitated, but with all the anesthesia, it's not so bad.
