An update

[SusQ]

It's been a while. I couldn't get here for a while, but we've just been so busy on top of that.

Things are moving along. Hubby is healing well, though now plagued by some breathing issues which are related to one of three things... a cold that our daughter brought home (though he doesn't have any head congestion), mild asthma or acid reflux due to the plethora of medications he's had to take in the last six weeks.

He had a check up with the second surgeon (the one who removed the fluid from around his heart) and all looks well. No more fluid has accumulated and his heart has begun the remodeling process. Yay! The surgeon lowered hubby's dose of Atenolol back to his pre-surgical dose, halved his ibuprofen, and took away the iron pills and multivitamin. Cardiac rehab has been ordered and will start as soon as the scheduling staff contacts us.

Due to several issues with his original surgeon/office staff, we have decided not to return to him. Ever. We have received the pre-op and post op notes from him and the cardiologist in his office that we saw and I cannot believe the sheer amount of inaccuracies in those notes. I was completely taken aback by some of what was written. I sure hope that his surgical skills are way better than either of their charting skills. In fact, I'm not entirely sure it was just hubby's file they were looking at while writing them and that is bad business in my eyes because of the life/death nature of what they do. :rolleyes2:

We discussed this with the second surgeon and he is willing to assume all follow up from here on out.

Hubby has also been back to work here and there. Not full days, but a few hours of light-duty stuff a few times a week. Oh, and we went camping this past weekend. He drove (towing the 5th wheel) without any issues. He even backed it back into the yard. He just took it slow and used the mirrors exclusively, rather than turning around like he normally does.

 

[epstns]

GOOD WORK! You've both come a long way. It is always such a great feeling for the rest of us to hear that yet another of our family is seriously returning to life. Keep it up!

 

[escargome]

Great Job!!! Give your hubby a hug and give yourself a huge pat on the back. The two of you as a team have taken on this journey and seem to be traveling a very good road. Keep the good work up.

 

[Lynlw]

I'm glad things are going well. Sorry to hear you were not impressed with his surgeon/staff. I know it is even more dissapointing/frustrating when you travel hous away, to have the "best" and it turns out the closer care was even better. IF you want, you might want to fire off a letter to the origonaal surgeon /hospital and let them know why you were not happy and why you will never go there again..I usually also mention I belong to alot of boards so will let others know what our experience was like, if nothing else it might make you feel better and MIGHT (altho probably rare) actually cause them to make some changes. I was really surprised once when i fired off a letter that so many people notonly called me, but they did change somethings, keeping me updated with calls. and I know they werent just saying things, since we ended up back there and things were much better..(altho that could be since they knew I was the trouble maker lol)
Maybe they were just having a bad day, I seem to recall quite a few of the post op patients ended ack in the OR the week you were there, but you are right, this is too important an organ they are taking care of.

IF I remember right , I remeber someone else who was not happy with her experience shortly after surgery, where your DH went altho most of her problems came about after she was discharged and had some post op complications..

 

[SusQ]

Thanks all. I am so relieved to have him on the road to recovery. Now I feel like I can de-stress.

Lyn, you are right on about thinking we were getting one of the best by traveling. I mean, we had to travel no matter what, but it really seemed to serve little purpose going the additional 3 hours (or more with traffic). I feel like all we did was waste a ton of money on travel expenses when we could have stayed closer to home and with much less expense. The second hospital had an extremely low-cost hotel/family house that we could have stayed at, versus spending $200 a night on a hotel room for my in-laws. And not only is parking free, but so is valet.

Ahh, well. It's done. And I have very few complaints on the surgery itself; it was a huge success. Or the hospital staff. He had some fabulous nurses, especially the one who stayed with him through that first night, helping him get through the pain. She was fantastic to my husband. Plus, I loved being able to be in ICU/recovery with him as he was coming out of anesthesia. I did not have that option after his second surgery and even hubby says that he was much more relaxed coming out of it with me right there.

And we wouldn't have had the experience of hubby having to keep fending off offers of getting help with a sponge bath by some big, burly woman. Hahaha. Oh that made us laugh every time.

But the issues with the surgeon's office staff and cardiologist are enough to keep us from going the extra mile to return.