Joanne,
All the best to you on Tuesday, hoping all goes well with surgery day and hospital recovery.
I have a funny story (a distraction) about caregivers and this OHS procedure, that highlights how difficult OHS can be on your close ones.
When meeting with the surgeon a few weeks pre op, was told that my caregiver should attend this meeting to be made aware of the process and expectations.
My spouse (love her, but she is a little squeemish, smile) attended, so once all tests were reviewed by surgeon (angigram, echos, xrays etc), his recommendation was AVR and MV possibly could be repaired or maybe replaced. We moved on to the discussion on valves and surgeon showed samples and provided stats and general benefits of mechanical and biological, at which point he looked up at my wife and asked her if she was ok, at which point she stood up saying she needed air and walking out of room, proceeded to pass out and we were just able to catch her from a bad fall....took the surgeon 20 minutes to properly revive her, at which point i resumed solo meeting with surgeon, but we had eaten up my time, his waiting room was backed up and no real valve decision was made that day and I left somewhat frustrated at not getting all the answers/information i needed for decisions and my preparation for OHS.
My spouse recovered, was totally embarassed and i drove her to work (she insisted) and this became a real worry for me pre op, as i had been so self centred (the woe be me syndrome pre op), that i had not considered the worry and stress, the upcoming surgery was causing to my spouse....a real wake up call, for me to do some planning, on helping her get through this.
Had a solo meeting with surgeon a few days before surgery, had all of my gory and risk questions answered (I needed to know) and decisions were made on valves, for a plan A and a plan B and became at peace with upcoming process, as it was no longer in my control.
Had a good conversation with spouse in the evening and set up a plan, for the period which is quite out of our control (surgery day, hospital stay and possible early complications).
In my case all complications occured in the 5 day hospital stay and were minor.
Enacted 3 laws pre op:
1) Firstly, made arrangements for my sister to accompany my spouse for 1st visit to me in ICU (travel and support companion for my wife, which worked extremelly well in providing my support person with a support person on a critical day)
2) No waiting for me at the hospital during surgery day for my companions (am very happy for that, as no visitors were allowed for the hours required to operate and stabilize me) and they were communicated by phone from a surgical member on a time when a visit to me would be ok and i would likely be awake again, so they were able to spend the surgery period in a more comfortable setting and drive in for a few hours instead of spending 15-16 hours on standby in a hospital setting.
3) no visitors (other than my spouse and 1 sister visit) during my stay at hospital, other that a 1-2 hour daily visit from spouse and on every visit I had to tell her it was time to go home, and remind her of he selfish reasons, that I would need her in good shape for the following week of home recovery.
My 3 laws were possibly selfish in nature, but worked best for me. The decision for no visitors were based on 2 previous anesthesized surgeries, where visitors at hospital were taxing to me and of no value to the visitors in my view, they may have felt an obligation to visit.
The rebound is I have friends and family that I have not seen yet (2 months post op), as some may have been a little miffed at my robbing them of the opportunity of seeing me in pretty bad shape, tough, but I have no regrets and would do it same way again.
We are all different, some will need family 24x7 while at hospital, some not.
The above is a long rant, of my personal experience.
Joanne all the best with your process, but remember that you are the patient. If hospital visitors reduces stress than by all means, but if visitors cause stress, then remember your objective of doing what is right for you in ensuring a speedier recovery. Your visitors have to also be mindful that a cardiac ward is is not an amusement venue and there are some pretty sick individuals in various stages of recovery...in my hospital stay, some of the other patient visitors were not very mindful of being in a cardiac ward.
Gil
