A
AlonnolA
Hello all -
AVR was last Tuesday. I was released Saturday and got home on Monday afternoon.
The surgery took 8 hours, due to the existing scar tissue and apparently unexpectedly low clotting potential which caused me to lose about 300 cc's. But I guess the extra time was well worth it because from then on my recovery has been remarkably fast and trouble-free.
I was woken up around 10 PM at ICU, and was sitting up in bed and moving out of ICU by Wednesday morning (they said they would have move me sooner but didn't have a bed).
I spent Wednesday in the "step-down" unit.
By Thusday morning, I was sitting in a chair and taking short walks. I spent Thursday night in the regular cardiac unit, which was a semi-private room just next door to the step-down room. My roommate was a guy who had gotten a complete heart transplant, and was about to go home after recovering in the hospital for about 2 and a half weeks, and was truly inspiring to talk with.
The next morning, one of the surgeons came in and told me that the VIP floor had spare rooms, and the cardiac floor needed to free up some beds, so he was sending me up there. The VIP floor is nicer, but the staff there don't specialize in any particular type of medical issues, so they only send patients there who don't need special care. He said that since I was doing so well, I was his top candidate.
So I ended up spending the last night (Friday night) across the hall from where Bill Clinton stayed. I had a carpeted private room with a large flat-screen TV. The end of the hallway was a full-width, full-height window looking south down the Hudson onto Manhattan and the Palisades - the sunset was amazing! The lounge had a glass-enclosed waterfall and was a huge room with a piano and lots of seating (which was important, because a bunch of my family came to visit me that day, and we basically took over the place). And the patient food came from the restaurant that was on that floor. That restaurant was my father's favorite place to eat, and I think he tried almost everything on the menu by the time I left the hospital.
I was released on Saturday, but had to see my cardiologist again on Monday before going home. So I spent Saturday and Sunday at my mother-in-law's house in the Bronx (where more people came to visit, and took over her place - she, in her usual good-naturedness "whipped up" a tremendous amount of excellent food and homemade cookies for everyone), and then we headed home on Monday afternoon.
I had quite a bit of pain when they switched me from the anesthesia to percocet. When they switched me to Tylenol, the pain actually improved.
Monday's Echo showed some pericardial fluid, so my cardio put me on a small dose of Indomethacin (he said it is an Advil-like drug that is an anti-inflamatory, but it is also a pain killer), so now I have almost no pain. At first I was concerned that the pain blockers would allow me to move around so much that I might open something back up, but my cardio says I shouldn't worry about that as long as I don't do anything crazy.
I'm switching from 5-minute to 10-minute walks today. I do get short of breath a little at the end of a 10+ minute walk, or going up and down the steps a few times. I suspect this is somewhat related to the pericardial fluid.
The top of my sternum has a pretty big bump on the left side. Looking around this forum, it seems some people were left with theirs and other had it go away eventually. It feels a little strange right now though - sort of like a lump in my throat.
I seem to be getting "pressure headaches" which I thought was due to my slightly elevated blood pressure (greatly elevated compared to pre-op), but the cardio says it could be the meds. Anyway these seem to be getting weaker and less frequent - usually right when I wake up in the morning.
bp preop was 120/30 or less. Post-op it has trended from 110/70, up to 125/90, and within the past day back to 120/80
pulse rate has been pretty steady post-op, around 100-110, which seems somewhat high to me.
I'm back on Lisinopril like I was preop so hopefully that will even out the pressure and then I can stop it.
My voice is a little hoarse, I guess from the breathing tube. But it seems to be improving so hopefully will be OK in another couple of weeks.
I have another Echo scheduled with my secondary cardio up here to follow up on the pericardial fluid. I'm hoping it will be much less by then.
AVR was last Tuesday. I was released Saturday and got home on Monday afternoon.
The surgery took 8 hours, due to the existing scar tissue and apparently unexpectedly low clotting potential which caused me to lose about 300 cc's. But I guess the extra time was well worth it because from then on my recovery has been remarkably fast and trouble-free.
I was woken up around 10 PM at ICU, and was sitting up in bed and moving out of ICU by Wednesday morning (they said they would have move me sooner but didn't have a bed).
I spent Wednesday in the "step-down" unit.
By Thusday morning, I was sitting in a chair and taking short walks. I spent Thursday night in the regular cardiac unit, which was a semi-private room just next door to the step-down room. My roommate was a guy who had gotten a complete heart transplant, and was about to go home after recovering in the hospital for about 2 and a half weeks, and was truly inspiring to talk with.
The next morning, one of the surgeons came in and told me that the VIP floor had spare rooms, and the cardiac floor needed to free up some beds, so he was sending me up there. The VIP floor is nicer, but the staff there don't specialize in any particular type of medical issues, so they only send patients there who don't need special care. He said that since I was doing so well, I was his top candidate.
So I ended up spending the last night (Friday night) across the hall from where Bill Clinton stayed. I had a carpeted private room with a large flat-screen TV. The end of the hallway was a full-width, full-height window looking south down the Hudson onto Manhattan and the Palisades - the sunset was amazing! The lounge had a glass-enclosed waterfall and was a huge room with a piano and lots of seating (which was important, because a bunch of my family came to visit me that day, and we basically took over the place). And the patient food came from the restaurant that was on that floor. That restaurant was my father's favorite place to eat, and I think he tried almost everything on the menu by the time I left the hospital.
I was released on Saturday, but had to see my cardiologist again on Monday before going home. So I spent Saturday and Sunday at my mother-in-law's house in the Bronx (where more people came to visit, and took over her place - she, in her usual good-naturedness "whipped up" a tremendous amount of excellent food and homemade cookies for everyone), and then we headed home on Monday afternoon.
I had quite a bit of pain when they switched me from the anesthesia to percocet. When they switched me to Tylenol, the pain actually improved.
Monday's Echo showed some pericardial fluid, so my cardio put me on a small dose of Indomethacin (he said it is an Advil-like drug that is an anti-inflamatory, but it is also a pain killer), so now I have almost no pain. At first I was concerned that the pain blockers would allow me to move around so much that I might open something back up, but my cardio says I shouldn't worry about that as long as I don't do anything crazy.
I'm switching from 5-minute to 10-minute walks today. I do get short of breath a little at the end of a 10+ minute walk, or going up and down the steps a few times. I suspect this is somewhat related to the pericardial fluid.
The top of my sternum has a pretty big bump on the left side. Looking around this forum, it seems some people were left with theirs and other had it go away eventually. It feels a little strange right now though - sort of like a lump in my throat.
I seem to be getting "pressure headaches" which I thought was due to my slightly elevated blood pressure (greatly elevated compared to pre-op), but the cardio says it could be the meds. Anyway these seem to be getting weaker and less frequent - usually right when I wake up in the morning.
bp preop was 120/30 or less. Post-op it has trended from 110/70, up to 125/90, and within the past day back to 120/80
pulse rate has been pretty steady post-op, around 100-110, which seems somewhat high to me.
I'm back on Lisinopril like I was preop so hopefully that will even out the pressure and then I can stop it.
My voice is a little hoarse, I guess from the breathing tube. But it seems to be improving so hopefully will be OK in another couple of weeks.
I have another Echo scheduled with my secondary cardio up here to follow up on the pericardial fluid. I'm hoping it will be much less by then.
Best wishes for a continued uneventful recovery and success with the second echo. Keep us informed.
