I
Igor
First of all, I want to thank everybody who got back to me on my first postings with lots of support and encouragement.
To make the long story short, I had my AVR done in Houston Methodist Hospital where I had a second opinion by Dr. Debakey who actually said that the he strongly recommended the surgery. The surgery was performed by Dr. Noon, started at night on 5/15 and was completed at around 1:00 AM on 5/16.
According to the doctors my recovery was not bad at all, I spent around 14-15 hours in ICU and then spent almost a week in the hospital due to the fact that I was not a local patient.
I am back home in FL now, feel definitely better that I was a week ago, but not as strong as I was before the surgery.
I spend almost all my day on my feet, either seating or walking around or inside the house. After the lunch I'm taking a half an hour - an hour nap.
The biggest problem is slipping at night. I constantly wake up every 2-3 hours, changing slipping position, and sweating.
Never had it before. Just wondering if that is common thing during first few weeks.
Also, my hemoglobin is kind of low, because during the surgery they did not give me any donor's blood. What is the best thing to do to get my hemoglobin higher?
Also I went with St. Jude and am on coumadin now. I found the web site on coumadine.com that gives you some information on vitamin K content in common foods:
http://www.coumadin.com/consumer/INT_VitaminK1.asp
However it only covers some common foods. Does anybody know of a web site that covers more foods.
And the final question (at least in this email), I used to ride a bicycle seriously, at least 80 miles a week and sometimes up to 140 miles a week.
Now being on coumadin, it does sound kind of scary. I used to have more than a few scratches once in a while.
Does anybody here is biking now and taking coumadin? Any suggestions or experience?
Thanks again to all of you. This is a wonderful web site.
Igor
To make the long story short, I had my AVR done in Houston Methodist Hospital where I had a second opinion by Dr. Debakey who actually said that the he strongly recommended the surgery. The surgery was performed by Dr. Noon, started at night on 5/15 and was completed at around 1:00 AM on 5/16.
According to the doctors my recovery was not bad at all, I spent around 14-15 hours in ICU and then spent almost a week in the hospital due to the fact that I was not a local patient.
I am back home in FL now, feel definitely better that I was a week ago, but not as strong as I was before the surgery.
I spend almost all my day on my feet, either seating or walking around or inside the house. After the lunch I'm taking a half an hour - an hour nap.
The biggest problem is slipping at night. I constantly wake up every 2-3 hours, changing slipping position, and sweating.
Never had it before. Just wondering if that is common thing during first few weeks.
Also, my hemoglobin is kind of low, because during the surgery they did not give me any donor's blood. What is the best thing to do to get my hemoglobin higher?
Also I went with St. Jude and am on coumadin now. I found the web site on coumadine.com that gives you some information on vitamin K content in common foods:
http://www.coumadin.com/consumer/INT_VitaminK1.asp
However it only covers some common foods. Does anybody know of a web site that covers more foods.
And the final question (at least in this email), I used to ride a bicycle seriously, at least 80 miles a week and sometimes up to 140 miles a week.
Now being on coumadin, it does sound kind of scary. I used to have more than a few scratches once in a while.
Does anybody here is biking now and taking coumadin? Any suggestions or experience?
Thanks again to all of you. This is a wonderful web site.
Igor