brunoandbear
Well-known member
I came home yesterday actually, but was too tired to do anything coherently on the computer. I also feel like I have been hit by a train and then it backed up over me, though I am very happy and blessed to be alive. 
I would like to thank my family and friends for all their help and support. They were with me at the hospital the whole time and were amazing. Also, thanks to everyone here who has been so supportive so far with all of my questions. I also thank the Lord above.
Wow, what a week. I went in Monday morning in pretty good spirits knowing I had no choice but to get this done, and lo and behold when I was checking in the guy right behind me was also having heart surgery that day - in fact, he was having it with my surgeon and having the exact same procedure! The only difference was his aneurysm was bigger (6.2 cm vs. 5.6 cm). We got to chatting for a while about Dr. Ed Chen, our surgeon and wished each other luck. My surgery was first and his was after mine.
To add to the anxiety that morning, my wife came down with Pinkeye overnight. I was worried they would cancel the surgery because of it but there was nothing I could do if that is what they wanted to do. My brother showed up shortly afterwards and we waited.
They called me back shortly to get ready. I went back and changed into the gown, put all my belongings in plastic bags and they had me on a stretcher pretty quickly and began trimming what little hair I have on me off of me. They then inserted an IV (did not hurt at all as they used a local anesthetic, it was a big line), I talked to a PA, an Anesthesiologist and then he gave me something to take the edge off. Whatever he gave me really rocked me and I began to get dizzy just in time to see they bringing my wife and brother back. I don't remember much more beyond that point, however I do remember them wheeling me off to the ER I think (it is rather blurry) to a big room with lots of stuff in it and some people asking me if I want to move from the stretcher to the table or they could do it for me. I then vaguely remember a mask being put on my face and that is it.
The next thing I remember is (and this is really blurry) being on the ventilator with someone telling me I have to breathe to get it out, then I remembered to exhale when they took it out and I was free. Apparently every time I dozed off I stopped breathing so they kept telling me that if I kept stopping breathing they would have to put it back in. I did not want that! Also, sometime around then my family and friends tell me that I had a seizure at 11:30 PM (my surgery started at 7:30 AM and they kept me on the breathing machine longer than normal because I had a very hard time with the anesthesia), however they weren't totally sure that I had one. I can remember asking the nurse if I will have to take depocote and not be able to drive for 6 months - but they said no because they weren't sure it was one (my brother has had one once). I also remember several of my friends coming in to egg me on to keep breathing. I then remember pestering my ICU nurse all night (she was great!) and every time I heard her I would ask her what my O2 level was, paranoid about it going low due to stopping breathing while asleep. The Doctor came in some point and told me to relax and they gave me some Zanax to calm me down. Also, my wife, my mom and my brother took turns sitting in my room in a chair in the corner. I vaguely remember making them out.
I could not see straight for two whole days - it was either a blur or the world was spinning like one of those old tube-tv's when the vertical hold was off). On Tuesday morning at some point they helped me into a chair and I just sat there dozing off. My minister came in at one point, though I couldn't really make him out that well but knew his voice and my Cardiologist came in a little later. It was great they took the time to visit. I was moved out of ICU that morning sometime and put in the ward and then struggled with changing pain medicine all day long. Whatever they gave me made me really high.
On Wednesday I had them change the medicine because I could not stand the high feeling so they put me on percocet. Percocet are great I must say as they really made the next two days more bearable. The only side effect of them I did not like was how they make the room seem to waver, wobble about whenever I tried to walk. They also removed my pacer lines on Wednesday - and that was an experience! It felt very weird and hard to describe - kind of like them pulling metal wires out of your insides that cause lightning bolts of energy to shoot through your chest while making this weird grating feeling. It was quite strange and I did not want to have to go through that again. They came to my room and gave me a chest x-ray afterwards.
On Thursday the gave me an echo in my room with my cousin and my brother there so they got to watch. After that, they came and picked me up to take me downstairs to have a Cardiac MRI. I have never had one of these. I do not suggest you have one of these after heart surgery either as you have to lie down on a flat board which you have no means to doing so without assistance, and no easy means of getting off of without help either. It hurt, a lot, as I was required to deep breathe and hold my breath many times (which hurt) while enduring the strangest 70's-ish Sci Fi sounding noises I have ever heard a machine produce. My only complaint with this experience is the process took 3 hours due to the fact that they could not get someone to come down and pick me up. I basically sat in the little waiting room for a long time while in a wheelchair.
On Friday they removed my drain tubes (that was not fun) and it hurt. I felt some ripping inside and sharp pain. I did not bleed much afterwards though and they put a bandage on me. Since they have removed them, I have felt a funny bubbly feeling inside of me in the area above where the drain tubes exited whenever I breathe in deeply. You can't feel it on the skin, but I feel it inside of me. This brings me to my first question - I am feeling pain in this area above the tubes now and it becomes a sharp pain when I breathe in deeply if I am in souch positions where I am not standing or sitting straight. I also get a constant pain in the area just above and (to my right) just near and perhaps beneath the ribcage there. Has anyone else experienced this? I called the ER Heart Doc on Call tonight about it and he thought it wasn't anything to worry about but said I should come into the clinic tomorrow and have them check it for me.
Back to schedule, on Saturday, I was discharged after pooping (I had to drink prune juice) and getting a chest x-ray for the tubes. When I got home I was exhausted and I just wanted to shower and sleep. I slept for two hours, woke up, spent the evening with my wife and father in-law, then tried to sleep that night. I was only able to get sleep in two-hour increments, waking up for three hours in the middle of the night and then falling asleep again. In all, between 10 PM and 9 AM I maybe managed to get 7 hours of sleep. I woke up today with that area above the drain tubes hurting even more.
I have had a fever constantly since last Tuesday of around 99 - 100.something degrees, which fluctuates to fever and not. They say that this is normal. My heart rate has also been much faster than normal, usually around 100 beats per minute and I feel the pounding of my heart as it shakes my body and head constantly. Supposedly this is normal also. I am constantly trying to get rid of that hospital smell and taste, while going on many walks. I walked much in the hospital, however it is far better to be walking outside while at home. I can not go to far yet as I still am slightly off with my balance when trying to talk, not to mention if I walk fast it hurts my sternum quite a bit. I'm on just Tylenol right now as on Saturday morning I decided that I did not want the narcotics anymore after they switched me from percocet to darvicet and I had a really bad trip that night. I drifted off to a world of color and bright imagery, traveled to many planets and ended up seeing a 2-D, 2-bit representation of our 3-D universe. After that, I saw a lady's head come out of the darkness telling me she needed to take my weight. I told her I did not want to give her my weight and then remember standing on a scale that is slid in front of me (at 3:30 AM) and watching my pounds get stolen from me. I was not pleased! With a huff of defiance I told the lady I was going to go to the bathroom and pee in the toilet! ... and that is what I did. We weren't supposed to pee in the toilet, we were supposed to pee in jugs. I then walked back out and started to realize that maybe I wasn't dreaming anymore and I was really awake. It took me ten or twenty minutes of talking to my father-in-law who was there to realize I was really awake and some lady had really came in just to weigh me.
That was it for the drugs after that!
I could probably go on for hours so I'll stop there for now.
I would like to thank my family and friends for all their help and support. They were with me at the hospital the whole time and were amazing. Also, thanks to everyone here who has been so supportive so far with all of my questions. I also thank the Lord above.
Wow, what a week. I went in Monday morning in pretty good spirits knowing I had no choice but to get this done, and lo and behold when I was checking in the guy right behind me was also having heart surgery that day - in fact, he was having it with my surgeon and having the exact same procedure! The only difference was his aneurysm was bigger (6.2 cm vs. 5.6 cm). We got to chatting for a while about Dr. Ed Chen, our surgeon and wished each other luck. My surgery was first and his was after mine.
To add to the anxiety that morning, my wife came down with Pinkeye overnight. I was worried they would cancel the surgery because of it but there was nothing I could do if that is what they wanted to do. My brother showed up shortly afterwards and we waited.
They called me back shortly to get ready. I went back and changed into the gown, put all my belongings in plastic bags and they had me on a stretcher pretty quickly and began trimming what little hair I have on me off of me. They then inserted an IV (did not hurt at all as they used a local anesthetic, it was a big line), I talked to a PA, an Anesthesiologist and then he gave me something to take the edge off. Whatever he gave me really rocked me and I began to get dizzy just in time to see they bringing my wife and brother back. I don't remember much more beyond that point, however I do remember them wheeling me off to the ER I think (it is rather blurry) to a big room with lots of stuff in it and some people asking me if I want to move from the stretcher to the table or they could do it for me. I then vaguely remember a mask being put on my face and that is it.
The next thing I remember is (and this is really blurry) being on the ventilator with someone telling me I have to breathe to get it out, then I remembered to exhale when they took it out and I was free. Apparently every time I dozed off I stopped breathing so they kept telling me that if I kept stopping breathing they would have to put it back in. I did not want that! Also, sometime around then my family and friends tell me that I had a seizure at 11:30 PM (my surgery started at 7:30 AM and they kept me on the breathing machine longer than normal because I had a very hard time with the anesthesia), however they weren't totally sure that I had one. I can remember asking the nurse if I will have to take depocote and not be able to drive for 6 months - but they said no because they weren't sure it was one (my brother has had one once). I also remember several of my friends coming in to egg me on to keep breathing. I then remember pestering my ICU nurse all night (she was great!) and every time I heard her I would ask her what my O2 level was, paranoid about it going low due to stopping breathing while asleep. The Doctor came in some point and told me to relax and they gave me some Zanax to calm me down. Also, my wife, my mom and my brother took turns sitting in my room in a chair in the corner. I vaguely remember making them out.
I could not see straight for two whole days - it was either a blur or the world was spinning like one of those old tube-tv's when the vertical hold was off). On Tuesday morning at some point they helped me into a chair and I just sat there dozing off. My minister came in at one point, though I couldn't really make him out that well but knew his voice and my Cardiologist came in a little later. It was great they took the time to visit. I was moved out of ICU that morning sometime and put in the ward and then struggled with changing pain medicine all day long. Whatever they gave me made me really high.
On Wednesday I had them change the medicine because I could not stand the high feeling so they put me on percocet. Percocet are great I must say as they really made the next two days more bearable. The only side effect of them I did not like was how they make the room seem to waver, wobble about whenever I tried to walk. They also removed my pacer lines on Wednesday - and that was an experience! It felt very weird and hard to describe - kind of like them pulling metal wires out of your insides that cause lightning bolts of energy to shoot through your chest while making this weird grating feeling. It was quite strange and I did not want to have to go through that again. They came to my room and gave me a chest x-ray afterwards.
On Thursday the gave me an echo in my room with my cousin and my brother there so they got to watch. After that, they came and picked me up to take me downstairs to have a Cardiac MRI. I have never had one of these. I do not suggest you have one of these after heart surgery either as you have to lie down on a flat board which you have no means to doing so without assistance, and no easy means of getting off of without help either. It hurt, a lot, as I was required to deep breathe and hold my breath many times (which hurt) while enduring the strangest 70's-ish Sci Fi sounding noises I have ever heard a machine produce. My only complaint with this experience is the process took 3 hours due to the fact that they could not get someone to come down and pick me up. I basically sat in the little waiting room for a long time while in a wheelchair.
On Friday they removed my drain tubes (that was not fun) and it hurt. I felt some ripping inside and sharp pain. I did not bleed much afterwards though and they put a bandage on me. Since they have removed them, I have felt a funny bubbly feeling inside of me in the area above where the drain tubes exited whenever I breathe in deeply. You can't feel it on the skin, but I feel it inside of me. This brings me to my first question - I am feeling pain in this area above the tubes now and it becomes a sharp pain when I breathe in deeply if I am in souch positions where I am not standing or sitting straight. I also get a constant pain in the area just above and (to my right) just near and perhaps beneath the ribcage there. Has anyone else experienced this? I called the ER Heart Doc on Call tonight about it and he thought it wasn't anything to worry about but said I should come into the clinic tomorrow and have them check it for me.
Back to schedule, on Saturday, I was discharged after pooping (I had to drink prune juice) and getting a chest x-ray for the tubes. When I got home I was exhausted and I just wanted to shower and sleep. I slept for two hours, woke up, spent the evening with my wife and father in-law, then tried to sleep that night. I was only able to get sleep in two-hour increments, waking up for three hours in the middle of the night and then falling asleep again. In all, between 10 PM and 9 AM I maybe managed to get 7 hours of sleep. I woke up today with that area above the drain tubes hurting even more.
I have had a fever constantly since last Tuesday of around 99 - 100.something degrees, which fluctuates to fever and not. They say that this is normal. My heart rate has also been much faster than normal, usually around 100 beats per minute and I feel the pounding of my heart as it shakes my body and head constantly. Supposedly this is normal also. I am constantly trying to get rid of that hospital smell and taste, while going on many walks. I walked much in the hospital, however it is far better to be walking outside while at home. I can not go to far yet as I still am slightly off with my balance when trying to talk, not to mention if I walk fast it hurts my sternum quite a bit. I'm on just Tylenol right now as on Saturday morning I decided that I did not want the narcotics anymore after they switched me from percocet to darvicet and I had a really bad trip that night. I drifted off to a world of color and bright imagery, traveled to many planets and ended up seeing a 2-D, 2-bit representation of our 3-D universe. After that, I saw a lady's head come out of the darkness telling me she needed to take my weight. I told her I did not want to give her my weight and then remember standing on a scale that is slid in front of me (at 3:30 AM) and watching my pounds get stolen from me. I was not pleased! With a huff of defiance I told the lady I was going to go to the bathroom and pee in the toilet! ... and that is what I did. We weren't supposed to pee in the toilet, we were supposed to pee in jugs. I then walked back out and started to realize that maybe I wasn't dreaming anymore and I was really awake. It took me ten or twenty minutes of talking to my father-in-law who was there to realize I was really awake and some lady had really came in just to weigh me.
That was it for the drugs after that!
I could probably go on for hours so I'll stop there for now.
