anyone have nightmares and dreams after surgery

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M

Marvin

Marvin has been having nightmares or something like them. He says he can feel his self get very anxious and this wakes him up with a feeling of nightmares and lots of odd dreams. Has anyone else had these same feelings.

Barb (wife)
 
My surgery was 12 years ago and I still remember some of those dreams. Drugs, anesthesia, body being hit by a Mack truck - I think it's our bodies' evil way of some pay back.

They will pass. Tell him to condition himself to say "Just a dream!" the minute he wakes from one and have something really pleasant to replace it with, like a wonderful vacation thought.
 
It happens from the anesthesia and the pain meds which take a while to leave your system. Sometimes people can hallucinate when awake. It doesn't last long. Don't be alarmed, it will go away very soon.

Marvin will be OK.
 
Get him to do all the walking and small excercises he can. It helps get the drugs out of his system faster. I think we all had these nightmares and hallucinations. I just don't think anyone wanted to talk about them. They seem very real when they're happening to you.
 
The weird dreams and nightmares are normal after this type of surgery. Please let him know that we all have experienced this and as time goes by they will diminish.

Take Care!
Gail
 
LOL!

*quickly covers mouth*

I'm amused only for the fact that I vividly remember some of my odd dreams while I was still at home last year...and distinctly remember how frightened I was some evenings, waking up in the middle of the night, scared to move. Yet, looking back on them now, I just laugh and laugh and laugh. Why? Because while they were obviously very disturbing at the time, I realize now just how much those drugs affect _everything_.

For instance, the night before I started driving again, I had a very horrible dream of getting into the car, starting it and having it explode on me. Yet, the next evening, when I stayed up until midnight just so I could drive on Feb 10 as soon as the clock said it was Feb 10, I had no fears and I was excited as a little kid on Christmas morning. When I left the house, my sis told me that if I didn't return home within a half hour, she was going to call my cell phone. She never had to call me...LOL! And, obviously, the car didn't explode...fortunately (or unfortuntely, depending on your point of view) that same car was flooded a few months later...and I have exactly what I want to drive daily!

Barb, I sure hope Marvin is having his share of funny/humoristic dreams as well to "balance" (for lack of better description) the horror episodes. I think the funny ones helped keep me sane...and take the nightmares in stride. It's those funny ones that make me laugh (now...not then) at the nightmares ;).

Cort S, pig valve & pacemaker-enhanced 30/swm
AIM=fc72mc...YIM=knightfan2691 / "The Uniter"..."Mr Road Trip"
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I'm sorry, I can't resist this:

Cort,
Did one of your dreams have to do with pool, Gina and losing over and over and over again.:D
 
FYI - The blood pressure medication Toprol can cause very vivid dreams. Some of my dreams were so vivid, I wish I could save them on TIVO, but since this is a family oriented web site, I won't describe them. No nightmares though.
 
Hmmmm... I had surgery 27 years ago and am still having freaky vivid nightmares..!!! Somehow methinks it's probably just me....... ;)

Hope they pass soon for Marvin and that the rest of his recovery is going well.

Best wishes
Anna : )
 
Barb & Marvin,

I'm still pre-surgery, and I'm having nightmares. They always seem to be related to something I'm actively worrying about (last night that was my kids' college funds and my surgery - it seems that I didn't open the funds until after surgery and I was so "pump headed" that I signed the wrong name, so my kids got the money and bought cars with it). I can't wait for the post-surgery dreams; it sounds like they'll be much more, um, interesting.
 
No doubt that post surgery dreams and nightmares are very vivid. But as has been said "these too shall Pass"
 
Moving around the house, walking in the house..gets those nasty drugs out of Marvin. Don't let Marvin talk too much about his surgery..He will have dreams of the last thing he was thinking. before he drifts off.:D He just needs to take pain meds..be quiet..and drift off.:) :) Bonnie
 
Abbanabba said:
Hmmmm... I had surgery 27 years ago and am still having freaky vivid nightmares..!!! Somehow methinks it's probably just me....... ;)

Hope they pass soon for Marvin and that the rest of his recovery is going well.

Best wishes
Anna : )


I'm sorry. I tend to do that to people. :D
 
Marvin had a better night last night slept much better here at home and not so much dreaming. Thanks for all input on the dreams I have past the info onto Marvin. He tryed to sit at the computer but was to tired still today. We will keep working on it. I know that he is not to put any pressure on trying to get himself out of a chair or bed by using his arms, does anyone know when he will be able to use alittle pressure to get in and out of a chair? I will probable have to go back to work next week and I am very concerned about his getting up and down in chairs or bed while I am at work.

Barb
 
My dreams were not nightmares, but I remember several dreams in which I needed to get somewhere i a hurry and I just began jogging. After "dream-jogging" for a time I remembered that I had just had OHS and should not be doing that...and then I would awaken. It seems that I had a dream like that more than once while I was in the hospital.

As for getting up and down from a chair or in and out of bed I have found that rolling while clutching my little pillow to my chest has been most effective. Lately I have been able to extend my legs and use them as a kind of counter-balance to get my upper body moving without having to use my arms. It gets easier as the wound heals and as Marvin discovers methods which do (and which don't) work for him to change position. Oh yes, when getting out of a chair I have found it easiest to perch on the edge of the seat and then to use only my legs to stand. Clutching the pillow to my chest prevented me from using my arms to push off as was used to doing.
 
ROFLOL!!!!!!!!

Karlynn,

No...

But, I did seem to keep losing my "baby girls" :(.
 
George DiMundo said:
As for getting up and down from a chair or in and out of bed I have found that rolling while clutching my little pillow to my chest has been most effective. Lately I have been able to extend my legs and use them as a kind of counter-balance to get my upper body moving without having to use my arms. It gets easier as the wound heals and as Marvin discovers methods which do (and which don't) work for him to change position. Oh yes, when getting out of a chair I have found it easiest to perch on the edge of the seat and then to use only my legs to stand. Clutching the pillow to my chest prevented me from using my arms to push off as was used to doing.

This is exactly how it's supposed to be done. It's hard not to use your arms to push off, but he's gotta try.
 
In the hospital, just after surgery, I had trouble falling asleep. Just as I would start to doze off, I got this terrible feeling of dread that woke me up. :( I think it was the morpheine. Its hard to have nightmares when you don't sleep.:D

As for that getting in and out of bed stuff.....It was a humbling experience to have to re-learn how to do simple things. My sense of balance was "off" few several weeks. I found myself reaching for a hand rail or an arm when walking.

Just about everyday was better than the day before. That daily progess was the key. :)
 
Barb - remember that the healing of the sternum is just exactly like healing of a broken bone. The best approach is to put no pressure at all on the sternum for the 8 weeks post surgery.
 

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