I had my first echo this month since my surgery a year ago on June 19, 2007. I had a mitral valve repair by Dr. William Ryan at Presby Dallas. Everything looked great, the technician told me (sshhh?I know he?s not supposed to tell me anything) there was extremely minimal leakage. He called it ?trace? because that?s the term they have to use, but said it is really next to nothing. My heart had been enlarged, but is now back to normal size and my ejection fraction is good. I came out of my appointment feeling on top of the world. It really paid to be proactive and have my valve repaired before my heart was damaged.
On another note, some of you may remember that I had a stroke as a result of the surgery. I later found out it was called a ?watershed? stroke and happened because I lost a large amount of blood in a short amount of time. My brain started shutting down parts of my body to deal with the loss of blood. Apparently when they closed me up after surgery a suture caught a part of an artery. They suspected when I was in ICU movement or something must have pulled the suture through the artery. They didn't catch it immediately and I dumped a large amount of blood before they finally took me back into surgery and fixed it. My right arm and hand were partially paralyzed for several weeks/months after the surgery as a result. I am still convinced that this all happened because the hospital just happened to be implementing a completely electronic record the day of my surgery. I woke up in ICU to see all these ?power users? in bright yellow shirts who were responsible for training the other staff members. The entire week I spent in the hospital following the surgery the employees were in confusion over how to deal with the change. The time in ICU there was great confusion over how to actually get the ?paperwork? done to get me the morphine that had been ordered and once they got it straightened out after several hours I eventually ended up over medicated because they didn?t end it soon enough.
Quite a long explanation to say that I am now pretty close to having all my former capabilities back, but not completely. As I type this I have to pay careful attention to the keys and am no longer the ?whiz? at typing and 10-key that I was before the surgery. I have to concentrate when I handwrite something, even my signature, to get it to come out right. I don?t want to give the impression that I?m feeling sorry for myself, I am extremely grateful for all the capacity I have gotten back. It really has made me realize how I have taken life for granted and makes me more grateful for what I have. My recovery ended up much different than I expected because although my heart recovered just the way I expected it to, my concentration turned instead to recovering from the stroke.
I want to thank all of you for the wonderful support I have gotten from this group, before and after surgery. I found myself not able to post as often and in-depth as I wanted due to my unexpected issues with being able to type, but I have really appreciated getting your support and seeing the wonderful support given to all the new comers here.
On another note, some of you may remember that I had a stroke as a result of the surgery. I later found out it was called a ?watershed? stroke and happened because I lost a large amount of blood in a short amount of time. My brain started shutting down parts of my body to deal with the loss of blood. Apparently when they closed me up after surgery a suture caught a part of an artery. They suspected when I was in ICU movement or something must have pulled the suture through the artery. They didn't catch it immediately and I dumped a large amount of blood before they finally took me back into surgery and fixed it. My right arm and hand were partially paralyzed for several weeks/months after the surgery as a result. I am still convinced that this all happened because the hospital just happened to be implementing a completely electronic record the day of my surgery. I woke up in ICU to see all these ?power users? in bright yellow shirts who were responsible for training the other staff members. The entire week I spent in the hospital following the surgery the employees were in confusion over how to deal with the change. The time in ICU there was great confusion over how to actually get the ?paperwork? done to get me the morphine that had been ordered and once they got it straightened out after several hours I eventually ended up over medicated because they didn?t end it soon enough.
Quite a long explanation to say that I am now pretty close to having all my former capabilities back, but not completely. As I type this I have to pay careful attention to the keys and am no longer the ?whiz? at typing and 10-key that I was before the surgery. I have to concentrate when I handwrite something, even my signature, to get it to come out right. I don?t want to give the impression that I?m feeling sorry for myself, I am extremely grateful for all the capacity I have gotten back. It really has made me realize how I have taken life for granted and makes me more grateful for what I have. My recovery ended up much different than I expected because although my heart recovered just the way I expected it to, my concentration turned instead to recovering from the stroke.
I want to thank all of you for the wonderful support I have gotten from this group, before and after surgery. I found myself not able to post as often and in-depth as I wanted due to my unexpected issues with being able to type, but I have really appreciated getting your support and seeing the wonderful support given to all the new comers here.
