inflamation

[smoeser]

My husband (age 57) had an Edwards Lifescience aortic porcine tissue valve replacement on 2/27/04. The surgery was done at St. Lukes Hospital in Milwaukee. During the surgery the first valve they put in was defective and they had to put in a second. His recovery has been very slow. He has had several boughts of inflamation. The first sent him back to the hospital where he was put on prednisone and immediately felt better. He came home and nine days later when he ended the prednisone treatment he began to feel poorly again. He says he feels like he has the flu and has no energy and some chest pain. He was put on Indomethacin, a non-steroidal antinflamatory that could not be used until he was off of Coumadin. Yesterday he took his last dose of Indomethacin and is starting to feel poorly again. Just this week he finally felt like going to work for a few hours each day and was up to walking for 10 minutes twice a day. Today he was back in bed for most of the day. Has anyone else experienced this? Any suggestions? We have had to really fight to get the doctor to pay any attention to this and I am dreading having to start it all over again.

Thanks for any help you can offer.
Sue

 

[Ross]

I can see why they tried Prednisone, but it in itself is probably a bit responsible for the slow healing. That is a nasty steroid. Effective, but nasty.

This far along after surgery, he should not be having this problem. Does he seem depressed? I think you should get a hold of a Doctor that does take this seriously or force the current one to deal with the issues at hand. 2 months later he should be up and walking all the time, returned to full time work, and well......a whole lot better then he appears now.

 

[ALCapshaw2]

There is something definitely NOT normal about his recovery. Has his Primary Care Physicial (PCP) been following him? What is his (PCP) assessment? Can HE request a workup by the Cardio or Surgeon? To my mind, it's past time for someone to get to the root of his unusually slow recovery.

'AL'

 

[Susan BAV]

Hello Sue -

I have read and heard that for every day a patient is bedridden, it will take five to seven days to recover previous strength. Toss in a major surgery on top of that and, WOW!!! So, if your husband has been ill for several weeks, it may take some time to fully recover. Also, I've read that others on this site have had some good days and then needed to have a bit more rest for a day or more and then they have more good days.

Is he getting better, bit by bit, feeling better this week than last, etc.? And is there any boomerrang symptom/issue with coming off a steroid?

Best wishes to you both; so glad you found this site!

~Susan

 

[bvdr]

I'm sorry to hear your husband is having a difficult recovery. Nothing about what you mention sounds "normal". I hope you are fast becoming very pro-active with his medical care. Either his PCP or Cardiologist has to be asked what they think is going on and why. Also ask what other possible causes of his discomfort and fatigue and what treatment is planned and how soon should he see results. Perhaps it is drug related or even just a slow recovery but drugs and be changed and recovery can be hastened with cardiac rehab or some real plan of action.

I hope things get straightened out for you all very soon. Inflammation is nothing to fool around with as it can cause damage.

 

[Bryan B]

I was on oral steroids 3 times before being diagnoised with endocarditis (not saying that's what your husband has), but my point is that each time I went on the steroids my symptoms improved, and each time I went off the steroids my symptoms came back. It sounds like it's time for the docs to dig a little deeper and not just throw steroids at the problem.