Luckyguy17/Gil - 28 days post op status - life is good

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Luckyguy17

Luckyguy17

VR.org Supporter
Supporting Member
Joined
May 3, 2010
Messages
513
Location
Montreal, Canada
Well here i stand, actually sitting on back deck, mid 70's, sunny dry and breezy....does not get much better than this and Andy you must be envious sitting in rainy MN (Grin)

Am now 28 days post op and cannot believe how well i feel today, am i a lucky one and possibly moving to even luckier on the health front.

In my case there have no major setbacks, almost every day has seen improvement and 28 days post op may have actually regained a decade or more....thought I had good energy pre op but bodes well for even more post op, so I guess I really needed OHS and some fixing (smile)

Sleeping 9-10 hours, no sleeping meds, just like my teens, not a care in the world.

Current remaining meds are 5mg Coumadin for INR 2.5-3.0...has been no issue for me and Coumadin may well be another 60 days, but if more again non issue, if that is so...thx be to Ross for good coaching on that....oh and 2 x 25mg of Metropolol, as systolic likely would bump back up to my norm of 130 withought metropolol.

Not sure if others have seen this but my new heartbeat since op is in the 80-90 at rest, whereas pre op I have never really varied from 70.... maybe they restarted me on a different beat (smile)

So for those with upcoming OHS, get some comfort in that in 2010, many have pioneered for us and there is no longer much to chance. Am aware that I may be having an unsual positive rehab, but am wishing all that follow the same...OHS is definately better alternative than 6 feet under and buying quality timne is what it is all about...am already getting the quality time...lucky me:D
Gil
 
Sitting on the deck having a beer eh? Life is good.

28 days and counting, glad to hear everything is gong well for you Gil.

Remember though, you are still healing so be good to yourself and do your walking :)
 
That is so great Gil!!!! I still remember just a few weeks ago I had just gotten out of surgery and you were still in the waiting room. I was trying to tell you - dude, this whole OHS thing ain't that bad afterall (at least for the vast majority). Do you believe me now? Don't ever doubt me again, lol.

You're an even better example than me of the best-case scenario for everyone! And it's not too far-fetched either. The point here is to give hope to others in the waiting room, there's a really, really good chance you'll do this well too! I'm only a step behind ya in terms of doing great. I had one setback for about 10 days or so - otherwise have felt amazingly great since surgery too. Mowed the lawn this morning for first time since surgery 6 wks ago tomorrow. I had my son pull the cord to start it, but I pushed it around the yard with ease. Felt great! Yep - it's rained 12 of last 14 days, so it was more like cutting through a jungle than mowing. And we're supposed to get more rain this afternoon, but this morning was dry for a couple hours (sun even peaked out of clouds for a couple min while I was mowing - hope I don't turn blue). The thing about weather in MN though, is just wait a few min, and it'll change. So, I fully expect a drought thoughout July, seems like the normal course here - wet June, dry July. And if so, I'll be enjoying my deck like you are!

But I'm just so happy you're doing great - makes my (new) heart smile!!!
 
Heh Andy,

Sun is coming to MN someday, maybe you pay less taxes than we are less deserving (grin)

here you on the weather extermes thing though, drought is a big deal for us in the country, as am still on shallow well and running out is a big deal as we learned some years ago in early decade.

Di the pullcord thing and 5 hours of mowing a week ago, (had supervision then), next challenge is moving bricks and heavy wood, but think it wise to hold up on that for awhile yet, to be safe.

Have always been blessed with good healing process, lucky me, put under for nose job from hockey at 11, surgery for shoulder separation at 18 (that one hurt big time), way worse than recent OHS, so fell bad for those hip, knee and shoulder patients, but maybe in 2010 that is less bad as well...as my surgeon said pre op, thank the researchers for the drugs, that can really help us now.

Funny, this wekk am lethagic, jsu soaking and musing and am ok with that, did the stress test last week and know there is a limit at this early stage.

Guess we should enjoy the freedom of no delievrables and full mastery on our schedule, unfortunately will be too short lived and likely a decade or more before retirement for me and even then, likely a carreer change vs. total retirement....will make a great Walmart greater (grin)

will try to blow some of the good weather west, but fear am fighting the westerlies...just send us the occasional rain, we'll do fine with that, monsoons mean flooding in country, which is no better than drought

keep up th good fight Andy, remember you were my role model, posting 36 hours post op....your are an original (grin)
 
Gil!

I can't believe it has been 28 days already. I love it. Time goes by so fast. Before we know it we will be running around town!!!!!!!! It's raining here today so I will have to settle for running around the house to get my 30 minutes of exercise in. Nice to hear you are doing so well.

:)
 
Gil, I had shoulder surgery about 10 yrs ago too, and I agree - in many ways, including the pain, it was worse than this OHS experience. Just looked back at my 36 hr post-op thread and there is NO WAY I could have done that 36 hrs after that shoulder surgery - that thing knocked me for a loop... By the way, I put a link to that 36 hr post-op thread below 'cause you were in the thread (you were n the waiting room at the time). Too cool!!! That link might be of interest to those in the waiting room now if you want even more proof that this just isn't that bad of an experience (usually).

Bina, you kill me, lol!!!!

http://www.valvereplacement.org/forums/showthread.php?34942-36-hours-Post-Op-As-I-Write-This&highlight=

PS - someone let me know whether this link works - I haven't tried to paste one in before.
 
Congradulations on the great recovery.

I am now 26 days post-op. I am definitely still recovering. I have little pain and the incision is healing well. Hills, stairs and endurance are still a problem, but that will come with time. My situation is different then yours though. This was surgery #4 and I already have permanant damage to the right ventricle. I may be starting cardiac rehab in about 3 weeks. Considering everything going on in my body, I have had a remarkable recovery. I am amazed at how quickly I was up walking in the halls at the hospital and walking around the hotel I stayed at post-op. Medicine has definitely come a long way.
 
Gil - hold off on the bricks and wood!!!! My doc specifically told me to wait until the 3 month mark to do that very thing. I asked about doing some landscaping (including moving bricks). He knows me pretty well (played softball with him) and knew I'd try to do that kind of stuff with all this time off. He stressed over and over, do NOT do it until 3 months... It can and likely will set you back... He told me some horror stories about other guys like us that did stuff like that - and years later they're still having problems, even though they started off great... Be careful!!!!!!
 
wow, Bina confirms that our male sex still rocks....yeah macho men, but pssst.... i cheated with Kryptonite, Superman may be weakened by Kryptonite, but it seems to work well for humans, would not be surprised if that glue becomes SOP in time, just hope there is no mid to long term side effects...seems not from what i have read and understand there are now test cases all over

Debb RN - 4th surgery, wow, I bow to you, you really need to get a thread and posting out there for those that dread doing this once again, if you have I missed it.... and you are walking and in semi recovery....that is a true case of survival and mind of matter...wow, cannot be easy and like Ross keep up the good fight....I do not mean to gloat about my good recovery so far...but for those in waiting, it may be nice to know that there is hope and am simply thinking what recovery and risk reductions may happen in next 5-10 years. Am fatalistic enough that with OHS and other major interventions, we are buying time, till the next bump in the road.

Malibu, think you get sunshine and we get rain tomorrow, so we'll switch moods, oK, have not seen an update, is your fever down and are you feeling improvement?

Andy, you rock, but you may now be macho man 2, Bina says so, live with it (grin)

Gil
 
Gil,

I just don't know any better. I started having surgery at 6 weeks of age. There has always been a surgery in my future. The docs tell me that this may be my last. Hopefully next time can be done in the cath lab. That would be wonderful, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Debbie
 
Debbrn said:
Gil,

I just don't know any better. I started having surgery at 6 weeks of age. There has always been a surgery in my future. The docs tell me that this may be my last. Hopefully next time can be done in the cath lab. That would be wonderful, but I am not going to hold my breath.

Debbie
Click to expand...

Debbie, just does not seem fair, hoping for you that this was your last surgery and that recovery can be as complete as possible, so much suffering out there, approximate age today out of curiosity?
You really should start a thread to tell your story, historically always having surgery on the horizon sounds weighty, is this what got you to an RN career?

Have a nephew's son now age 15, on 2nd bout of Leukemia and just ending 2 1/2 years of treatment, really aggressive and very difficult this time although at 6 it was tough as well....just to say that his career projection is to become a doctor in cancer treatment, so good on him, can you imagine how empathetic he would be with his patients...hope he makes it to fulfil his dream

Gil
 
Glad to hear you're doing so well! Keep it up!!!! It's wonderful to just "enjoy life". Take care.
 
Wow day 29 for me and it just gets better, Penny I apologize for what follows but it is your fault for luring me on, be forewarned and exit now if unsure...it is somewhat like searching for ladybug and stumbling onto a pornsite, so be warned

(Grin) Really major improvement today, actually had the 1st of my 4 drain plug scabs pop out on it's own, am impressed, just a little white slit is all that remains, cool, when i sit back and look I may well have to rethink and re-change my next career orientation, (was thinking that underwear salesman for Sears catalogue might be a good job), but woe be me not sure they would have me now, so am disappointed but so be it....life goes on.
Now if only those other 3 little suckers can pop as cleanly, (am resisting the desire to pull them out and also resisting the desire to scratch my chest red), so looking good for next step...whatever that may be, every day is a learning experience in this OHS business...., what a learning curve it has been.

Men, by the way do not get a brushcut pre op, unless you like brushcuts, hair and nails do not grow back very fast post op by my experience. Is that another effect of surgery or side effect of meds i wonder, no one warned me of that, shame on you...so looks for me that with the slow growth of hair, am likely to save on monthly haircuts, yeah, for the next little while, but I will surely miss my barber - Ross, ask me why? she is a 20 something old hottie and knows it, really nice and it really is too bad you do not live closeby, you'd love this girl, she rides a Harley too in her time off, i love that girl and Ross you would too...will miss her for the next while).

So Andy am now reconciled to some time before I get that grizzly brown/gray look back on my chest, hiding the scar....it's great to be a man, cause some day i hope soon it'll grow back and hide my scar (sexist remark i know).

For my next career if change is required and because Sears catalogue modelling is out, guess I''ll have to re-read that Parachute book for an alternative...but i digress, ...again..., must be the Coumadin, cause Metropolol does not work for men, just works for women or so am told ....but now at least am checking my spelling, most times.

So looking good for next step...whatever that may be, every day is a learning experience in this OHS patient business.

Speaking of which, tomorrow is a really big day for me, it my 1st real face to face meeting post op with a medical professional, my cardiologist.....I did get a follow-up call from a nurse at the hospital a few days after arrival home and did meet a blood doctor (forget their title) on a few occasions (10 seconds each) at the anti-coag clinics, where they read me an INR number annd said leave...but am not convinced that blood doctors are real doctors, are they, they are so unsympathetic?

So i digress once again, tomorrow am driving in (about an hour drive), to meet with my cardiologist to hopefully get his permission, to drive home, ironic and neat huh, or eh? as we say in Canada.

Am feeling a little smug, cause 30 days post op, i really do not have questions for him...not true...i have one - "When can we do an echo and stress done, so that i know my new baseline?" But from the difficulty in scheduling tormorrow's meeting with his secretary, i may need to fight him to at least get an echo, as it does not seem to be SOP pos op...go figure?

Just seems logical to me that if I have 4-5 previous echos from pre op, might be nice to know, where i stand post op, right, did the surgery fix all of those squiggly, red, blue?, yellows that showed up on previous echos and does it look like am back to 2 cm squared gaping opening when the valve opens, as the new measurement on my new and beloved aortic valve...just seems reasonable to me that having endured the stress of pre op OHS and 30 days of rehab, someone out there somewhere may have the answers as to how it went and whether it all worked, was it worth it?

Said I felt smug for the meeting, because even though my cardilogist is about mid 50's and has had 1,000's of patients in his career and still play's hockey, (so i doubly need to be respectful), he has not to my knowledge ever had OHS, so all of his information is second hand from patients (and we know as patients, that we all hold back a little on doctor patient calls, I surely am not the only one right).

So really wonder what's in it for me tomorrow, oh and yeah, almost forgot, he wanted me to get a mech valve, so am expecting a littl friction and to get chastised on that one for choosing bio, my caridologist has a thing for Coumadin, seems like a love relationship and hope he does not get my BP up....Ross warned me about that choice.

Now the meeting I am really looking forward to if it can ever get scheduled, is with the surgeon. He has all the answers and have i got a load of questions for him. After all we spent several hours together in a very intimate procedure (it does not get much more intimate) and I have no recollection of that date. For Ross, i know it's been awhile since surgery, so in terms you will surely understand, surgery is like a blind date where you drink a lot before (because you are nervous) and drink some more during the date and end up totally inabriated, where you can't remember what you said or did during several hours...scary huh... and i do hope my blind date with the surgeon did not scare him off from a 2nd date..very scary, as am sure can relate.
Now that meeting would/should bring something to me in terms of value add.

Andy all of the above, it is like a sales call where you qualified the prospect beforehand and you pretty much know what to propose, but just to be sure you'll hear them out, in case there is something else, they can add.

Ok, nuff said, bye for now..., have been taking courses from my mentor Andy :p.....

Gil
 
Luckyguy17 said:
(Grin)
Now the meeting I am really looking forward to if it can ever get scheduled, is with the surgeon. He has all the answers and have i got a load of questions for him. After all we spent several hours together in a very intimate procedure (it does not get much more intimate) and I have no recollection of that date. For Ross, i know it's been awhile since surgery, so in terms you will surely understand, surgery is like a blind date where you drink a lot before (because you are nervous) and drink some more during the date and end up totally inabriated, where you can't remember what you said or did during several hours...scary huh... and i do hope my blind date with the surgeon did not scare him off from a 2nd date..very scary, as am sure can relate.
Now that meeting would/should bring something to me in terms of value add.



Gil
Click to expand...
Great post Gil and love the humour attached. LOL...great analogy equating the surgery to a blind date with memory lapses...too funny! Seriously, good luck with your cardiology appt. tomorrow. I completely understand why you are chomping at the bit to see your surgeon again. I definitely got more satisfaction and questions answered through my surgeon than my cardiologist.
 
Hahahaha, I don't have time to reply right now (some of us have to get to cardio rehab) but finally, Gil is learning! Now THAT was a worthy post! Stacks up to some of my longer ones (well, maybe just to some of the medium ones) but he's making progress! Good "on" you Gil (as you say up in Canada). More later - lots in there to reply to ;)
 
Gil, I think that in Canada they don't like to put in tissue valves unless the patient is very old because it costs too much on our public system to do another OHS.
 
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