After your surgery, what are some of the things that you found out that surprised you

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I was surprised when I woke up with a breathing tube in my mouth, and couldn't talk or move, and so I tried to write "a note...take this f^^^ing thing out please"
I was still surprised that the tube was not out, so then I decided to sit up and take the bl^^dy thing out myself, not a good idea as I found out, but I was so awake it was causing me to gag....not very nice at all.
I was surprised when the nurse said she was turning my insulin infusion down, and instead of adjusting the insulin infusion, she turned my tempory pacemaker down instead in errror, and slowed my heart rate dangerously and almost killed me.
I was suprised that the worst pain I had was abdominal pain, and the nursing staff didn't care, and didn't give me anything, so I called an ambulance and had the paramedics speak to the Doctor to help me get some pain relief.
I was suprised to learn that the abdominal pain was actually a gall stone, one of the most painful experiences that a male can experience, and I was surpised t how remorseful the nursing staff were when they found out and just thought I was a sook (i'm not I have a very high pain threshold indeed)
 
I was surprised that I couldn't fall asleep for 10 days except for little snatches here and there.
I was surprised that the hospital didn't have gluten free bread.
I was surprised when the anthestesologist came to see me in recovery because I woke up and was very lucid. You see, they had to open me back up twice for a bleed in the aortic root and I was brain dead for 10 minutes. The surgeon told my family that IF I woke up I would be severely brain damaged--but that didn't happen.
I was surprised that since I was brain dead, I didn't get a white light experience.

P.S. It is common medical procedure to give insulin injections to any major surgery patient because your blood sugar raises in response to the stress of the operation and high blood sugar (as all us little diabetics know) SLOWS HEALING--So they counteract that with insulin.
 
This really isn't a big surprise, however I had wondered ever since the incentive spirometer was given to me whether or not there was some way to make it work the opposite. The spirometer that was given to me at the hospital basically worked by deep breaths in, rather than out as many seem to do. Which does well for getting the lungs to fully expand. so breathe in to make the ball rise and stay at the top.

Just learned this a couple a days ago, almost a year after my surgery. That if I turn the unit upside down it works the opposite. Breathe out to make the ball rise and stay at the top.


This is the model I had.
http://www.talktools.com/spirometer/
 
This is a great thread. Many interesting comments.

I was surprised;

1. When I found out the pericardium is not necessarily (and seldom is) restitched after heart repairs. Just left open.
2. That 1st time gout attacks (very, very painful) can be caused by; trauma from surgery, ASA, diuretics and dehydration. Never came up.
3. That things did not hurt near as much as I had imagined.
4. How quickly I could act like; passing gas, Foley catheters, IVs and being proud of a BM, was a normal daily occurrence........no modesty left.
5. How fast the anesthesiologist could put me under after I asked "how come I am the only one here without a party dress?" and "So, where's everyone from?" Next thing I knew was trying to calmly breathe through my nose and ignore the tube in my throat. Guess I was not that funny.
6. How absolutely great I am feeling both physically and mentally since the surgery.
7. How much I enjoyed going back to the gym at only 8 weeks post-op.
8. How much this forum can help if you are unsure of the post-op aches and pains and heart related weirdness.

Great day in the neighbourhood......:cool2:
 
Surprised at how easy the operation was only 3 hours, how painless it all was , waiting for a bomb to drop this is to easy, could only laugh at them putting me in pre-op under the number 13, going home after 5 days, and yes how nice all the nurses were at London Science Hospital were to me and my family. All in all surprised to be alive and amazed at the skills of all these peop
le who are involved in saving our lives around the world, simply amazing. Thank you all. Oh yes and I to cant believe the weight gain even now
 
After surgery I was surprised at how little the breathing tube bothered me, 4 hrs after surgery it was pulled and really was no big deal, followed the instructions and out it came. I was a little surprised to be cardioverted in the ICU twice that really didn't change my rhythm, I only had a HR of 100 bpm. I was also surprised to gain 26lbs of water in the next 24 hrs, this hindering the chance of me walking the next day. I was surprised that even being 48 hrs behind in my recovery that things turned around and started going the right direction very quickly. I wasn't surprised at the good care that cardiac patients receive while they are in the hospital. All in all, I was surprised at how bad my mind made this out to be, and how it wasn't the horrible experience I projected it to be. For that I am forever grateful.
 
I was in the hospital for 4 days for my AVR, then after I stayed in a hotel for a week. I think a huge surprise was how in the hospital you're made to get up and walk..and you really can't go far. On the 5th day I was walking the hotel halls multiple times a day and even going downstairs to the restaurant to eat dinner. An operation of that magnitude I thought I'd be gone for quite sometime, and I was..just not as crazy as I expected. Also before I read how bad the breathing tube, chest tube, and cathader were so terrible to have taken out, breathing tube wasn't bad, chest tubes wasn't bad..it wasn't fun but it was more just a strange feeling I'd never felt before, wasn't terrible, and the cathader I FEARED, when the time came and they did it, I felt relieved, it was quick and was like breathing in fresh air again. I will also say its almost scary how fast you go down when you get the anesthesia, you are lights out.

I'm sure there's more just never shared any so i thought I'd bring some more life into this.
 
Well now, the longer away I am from AVR the more I find this site to be accurate.... In that as they say, EVERYONE IS DIFFERENT!!!!
Different because I went thru- and still do - the things everybody mentions.
Here's an everyone's different version ... I had mantle radiation in1970 for Hodgkin's lymphoma (sage heads nod here) and 40 years later was surprised (surprise!!) with a 91-93% block at the ostium(sp?) (opening) to my LCA. We fixed it. Do what they say here, GO TO A HOSPITAL THAT DOES TONS OF WHATEVER YOU NEED DONE. I found myself telling the surgeon which femoral artery to hae(?) as the one he was trying to find had had /hip replacements snd he had trouble finding his marks. My other side had had only One hip replacement. The I'VE wasn't started before he injected the novo sine or whatever it was to numb the spot, and the Epi in it was all my strong veins needed to collapse-a first. I told the the vein in my elbow worked really well (it looked really full to ME-and at first they said "we only use that for- and then shut up and used it. My surgeon did a terrific job - going inside out and backwards (!) to get that stent shoved into the tiny hole, across the aortic stream. I groaned and so on the whole time 'cause shoving that thing HURT. The job was excellent and the surgeon came to me later saying I hurt you, didn't I?" But I told him no because he looked so sorry. I really liked him .... But I know something about how to Put a stent in, etc? While an excellent job was done, I don't know how many stents are put in Like ThAt!!! Next time-apologies to my excellent surgeon- I'll be going to a bigger hospital, thank you.! Wanted to say 3mos ago now I had ablation for a flutter that kept circling and circling my tricuspid and wouldn't stop. One ablated, I had a feeling that something much bigger than just a simple straight line radio ablation that took all of 15 minutes- had happened. I knew I was healed of something much more. Later, my colicky baby(what I called my demanding want kale? Want salmon? Want fish oil? Want nut butter?!!! What!!!(was thinking it really wanted nitro and I'm on no heart meds. Took a calm down pill the Cardoi had wanted for Neva year earlier but it only sped my already fast normal 85-87 pulse up. Thought nothing else to try - after ablation - and it DROPPED my pulse to 72, not seen since before I was 20 and I was a jock full out at 30. Later my Cardio explained- he'd never had a pt with heart trauma In early 20's or before that DIDN'T afterward have PTSD in their heart muscle memory ( I guess) for the rest of their life. The pill is Clonazepam, in the azepam family. And when I first took it it sped up my heart -not right and he must have guessed something was happening - and it was, for YEARS. Undetected because the heart ventricles lumping action can MASK fib or flutter... And with the pill it was like a spark plug misfiring when you step on the gas- unseen and unknown. Until it was idolated and looked at- a bloody miracle, that. The radio ablation stopped it when they isolated the atrial action from the ventricular and for-35?40?45 years? I had a malfunctioning heart- as a jock!! Never lower than 85 pulse - just figured I had a small heart. Long story. But some of this could be happening to YOU..don't go like me. Oh, I'm just a healthy healthy jock.! Who needs all that dr anything or not smoking EVER when you come from terrific genes. God spared me, I'm having to use 2 hands now to tick off the "coincidences". No ones ever the same. But so many of us will nod when we read stories like this!!! Ps. 72 heartbeat now- INCREDIBLE... And up and onward into my new life- here- in this earth with you all. It is an incredible gift. Michelle
 
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I was surprised that I survived, that I had a hard time standing straight, that I developed AF and that it took four horrible days to go away, that my AV was the most calcified ( at the young age of 52) that the surgeon had seen in thousands of ops, and that my LV was more muscle bound ( not a good thing) than the echo indicated pre-op.
 
Thanks to this site, I had very few surprises after surgery but one thing that I would like to share did cause me some difficulty. My surgeon told me that I should expect to be in the hospital for 5-7 days and 3-5 days in ICU, fairly typical numbers. When I became conscious after surgery my breathing tube came out shortly afterward and although I didn't get any sleep the first night, the next morning I was hungry and able to eat just fine. I finished all of my breakfast, french toast, pears, coffee and orange juice hungry from the night before. Because I ended up getting a modified "L" shaped mini-sternotomy rather than a mini-thoracotomy, that I had hoped for, still a good part of my sternum remained intact so it was not all that difficult to sit up in bed, and my wife and family, the ICU nurses praised me and declared how well my recovery was going to go. I know everyone meant well and but I think it would have been better for me personally if the optimism expressed to me was a bit more guarded that first day. When my first problem appeared, (the typical inability to pass urine or have a BM) I felt myself having to overcome my emotions as well as my pain. My next setback occurred when my Foley catheter was removed a bit too soon, requiring them to reinsert it 6 hours later after an ultrasound of my bladder confirmed that a straight catheter reinsertion was required immediately. That hurt nicely.

My potassium levels remained persistently low, my SpO2 levels were too low and required aggressive pulmonary treatments (that spitting, smoking breathing apparatus I needed to use every 4 hours) and even one night on day 3 trying to sleep with a very noisy high-flow nasal canula (turned up to 15!) all night long. A power outage at the hospital that shutdown the normal operation of the Surgical ICU for several hours. The first day after surgery my spirometer volumes were above 3000ML and wouldn't be that high again until Sunday, 4 days later.

I determined that the best mental state for a good recovery is an thankful optimistic mindset, and to be careful of pridefully measuring myself against the progress of others on this site. We each bring our own issues to the table and will recover and different rates.
 
Of all the things that I was told could be painful or uncomfortable, the thing that bothered me the MOST was the foley catheter. Not painful or especially uncomfortable, I just wanted to pee NORMALLY. Even the chest tubes didn't hurt coming out.

Heparin/lovenox injections are AWFUL. I'm glad that I lost weight after the surgery, so that I had some extra belly fat for those shots.

I was not surprised about the insulin injections, after reading about it on this site. Thank you all for sharing and making it a bit easier for those of us who follow.

I'm surprised that I don't even remember the part with the ventilator. I just seemed to wake up already in my nice room, although my family swears that I was awake and mildly fighting the tube.

On the "slab" in the OR, I jokingly asked if someone was going to remove the big skin tag from my neck and was jovially told "Of course not." When I woke up, it was gone and there was a nice bandage in its place. So, if you're in for surgery anyway, try to get whatever freebies you can in the bargain. I should have asked about lipo or maybe a nose job as well...
 
Because I was quite strong and a regular exerciser before surgery, I was most surprised by how short of breath I became after even minor exertion. I expected to be a little winded when walking up stairs, etc., but I wasn't prepared for not being able to walk more than a few steps on the level without stopping to gasp. Likewise, when very tired, which was often, I would lie down and try to get comfortable, but that effort left me so winded that I could barely catch my breath and breathe normally so I could fall asleep. This abated slowly over 11 or 12 days and finally settled down. And yes, I was faithfully doing my assigned breathing and walking exercise!

As they say, old age ain't for sissies!
 
I was surprised to wake up with the ventilator still in place. My anesthesiologist told me that it would probably be out before I woke up. I remember every bit of it. I woke up at around 3:00 pm and it did not come out until around 11:00 pm. The respiratory therapist STILL didn't want to take it out at that time, but the nurse basically told him that she didn't care and to take it out because I had been on it for so long. My friend, who is a radiologist at the hospital I was at, came up to check on me a few times and said he had never seen anyone that alert and on the ventilator. Lucky me. Some people have to go through SO much worse, and it was smooth sailing after the vent came out! :)
 
Gastric reflux! Somehow I hadn't expected that one, but on the second day after surgery I developed extremely painful heartburn that made it hurt to swallow anything. It's getting better now, after a week, but for a few days NOTHING hurt worse than my heartburn, including my incision, and I had no idea that could even happen!

The ventilator tube was also not the big bugaboo that I'd expected it to be. I was awake on it for about two hours, and though I wanted it out, it didn't hurt or make me claustrophobic.
 
I was surprised by several things:

- how comfortable the OR bed was - it was even heated! Wasn't rock hard either.
- they shaved me after I was out and only took a small strip of hair w/an electric shaver off the middle of my chest where the incision would be. Nothing else.
- how alert I was after I first woke up in ICU. Later on you may you forget some things due to the pain meds and drugs, but at the time I was very alert.
- how quickly the ventilator came off - right when I woke up and did 1 deep breath
- how long the drain tubes were! I remember them saying "deep breath in...and breathe out". And then I saw them take out about 7" or 8" or tubing. Wow.
- how much less pain I had when they took the drain tubes out!!
- how much pain I have had across my neck/right shoulder/upper back during my recovery (they opened me up 2x due to excessive bleeding)
- hiccups can hurt after OHS! They hit several times in ICU after having ice chips/water. Sneezing, coughing, barfing get all the attention - but rightly so!
- the IV that was in my jugular hurt afterwards - both while it was in and when they took it out.
- not a trace of "pump head" due to the heart/lung machine. I was overly worried about this and did not need to be.
- how one of the nurses in the cardiac ward had no idea what a BAV was. I was stunned, and had to explain it to her (they were all very good though)
- how I lost 1 lb in the hospital. No weight gain at all, no swelling, no fluid retention. I kept hearing how people bloat up quite often.
- everyone loses their modesty in the hospital - its funny how pooping, passing gas, peeing become such big topics/massive reliefs. I shared a room with 3 others.
- never had a catheter before. Hope to never have one again! Although it was nice not having to get up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom!
- how simple things like going up some stairs or a small hill cause you to get short of breath right after surgery. Its weird to feel winded for something so easy.

All in all, its been pretty good. Some pain management to deal with, but that's mostly it. Its great to have it done :)
 
Some inputs from my experience with my AVR

Some inputs from my experience with my AVR

I agree with most of the things (eyperiences) that T in YVR told, and add some of my own:

- I was surprised also by the draining tubes. They look so weird inserted in your stomach. And painful, when they take them out: "ok...count, 1,2,3...breath in, now breath out..." ahhhh! (3 times). But then the feeling is much better.
- Although I wasnt opened twice as my fellow friend T in YVR, I also had, and still have, pain on the right part of my upper body: neck, upper back, shoulder.
- Yeah, coughing, and specially, sneezing, hurt! But you can handle it (it was weird also, because my body, maybe to avoid the uncomfortable situation of sneezing, stopped right after having the sensation of sneezing. Crazy!)
- I was also once surprised, and then pissed off (I am not that kind of guy usually) to see a nurse who was responsible for me one in the Intense Care Unit who just wondered around, looking sooo lost, that I thought how could they assign this guy to me while the other patients looked very well advised and treated by their respective nurses. I was so pissed off, that I started to tell him: "hey dude, if you dont know what you are doing, ask please!" Then, after a couple of minutes arguing with him about the impression he gave of not knowing what he was doing, all the nurses turned around and told me that I shouldnt wonder about that, that he was an experienced nurse, but that he was new to this ICU of the hospital! (Btw, I didnt see him again after this!)
- I also never had a catheter before; I was pretty impressed I didnt even have the feeling of going peeing: all the liquids flowed throughout this catheter. However it was a bit weird to see the tube of the catheter coming out of my penis.
- I started not taking for granted things like breathing, walking, standing up...because at the beginning I had to either learn again how to breath correctly or being the whole time in bed. You start to see each step of yours as worth it.
- I am also surprised to feel my heartbeating kind of strong everytime I have to lay down. It is like my heart has to get accostume to being in a new position; I also hear my heartbeat sometimes quite strong, although I dont have a mechanic valve.
- When I go out to walk, I experience pain on my upper right back. I dont know why is that, but what I remember is that while being in the ICU being assisted by oxigen, I experienced a strange sensation on that same part of my body: as if I had caught some air ( its tough to describe the sensation).
- And last but not least, I was also surprised by the beautiness of some nurses! (incredibly, I did feel not pain while looking at them! :)


28 years old; Ross Operation: 11/7/13; Still in recovery phase.
 
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