starburstcoral
Member
As beautiful as the CC is, glad to be out of there. Eric's surgery according to his surgeon went perfectly. We were still debating about what valve to choose until the morning of the surgery, he did pig st. jude 28 mm. CC definitely has a bias towards tissue vs. mechanical. Thus they do many redos... We had some close friends come over & have dinner with us the night before which seemed to really take the edge off. We also made a video during pre-op to pass the time before surgery. We were at the hospital at 6:15am, and they didn't take him upstairs until 8:30am....They went in at 9:30am and his surgeon called me 11:45am and said he was off of bypass and they were closing him up. When he woke up he was combative with the breathing tube, so they restrained him and knocked him out. When they took out his breathing tube he was in good spirits and was hitting the pain med button every few minutes. The next day when they took out his chest tube there was a very loud clicking sound- they did an echo in the icu and the valve was ok, yet they weren't really sure what was causing the noise other than guessing it was a piece of cartilege rubbing against the heart. It did not sound good. He was really concerned that they were going to go back in, he told me to tell them he wanted a mechanical if they did have to go in. But that didn't happen. Went away by the next day. He hasn't been in much pain, uncomfortable, but stopped the pain meds because they were hurting his stomach/appetite after about 5 days. He was anemic 7- and now he is at 11.6- almost normal. Since being home he is getting better every day but the nights are tough. He has had a persistent cough for 2 weeks, that keeps him up at night. He called his cardiologist they said it was normal and may last for a few more weeks, has anyone had this experience with coughing? Thanks! Mary
