Get an accurate scale
Get an accurate scale
Hi, Michelle,
I am one of proverbial husbands often mentioned in this thread
The good news is that I've come a long way to become a pretty good nurse for my wife, all thanks to this forum.
My seemingly wife went from a diagnosis to the emergency OHS in 2 days
I knew next to nothing about a heart disease, not to mention the aortic disease.
I am sure your husband will do fine when time comes...
It helps that you guys found this site before your surgery.
The nurse at CICU did a wonderful job of preparing the scared husband a day before her surgery.
Contrary to my anxiety, my wife looked fine when I went to see her for the first time after the surgery.
They wrapped her hair in a white towel and covered her with warm air blanket.
Her color looked fine.
She looked almost like she was taking a nap at a spa! (Other family member said the same thing afterward).
She did have so many tubes and wires hooked up though.
Scariest thing was the chest drain tube. I did not take my 7 year old to see her until she was off the drain tube.
And nice nurses took an extra care to hide other tubes and wires to make it less noticeable when they heard our son was coming.
Dr. Speir was my wife's surgeon. You are in good hands.
Now you have a surgery date set, I thought I would share few things from our experience
#1. Get an
accurate electronic scale. After the surgery you will need to monitor your weight daily to watch for the fluid build-up around the heart and lungs (pericardial effusion and pleural effusion).
We did that and 2 weeks post-op, we noticed a sudden weight gain of 1 lb one day, 1 more lb the next day and 2 more lb the 3rd day. We went to the surgeon's office immediately. She did not have any symptoms but the surgeon's office ordered an echo and discovered the effusion and signs of cardiac tamponade which would've been dangerous if we did not detect it early with the accurate scale.
Get Tanita scale (Bed, Bath and Beyond has them locally). We found it very accurate and consistent. Some other electronic scales we tried gave different weights when we weight ourselves multiple time back-to-back. These would not have detected 1 lb change. Tanita gives the same weight everytime.
Weigh yourself at the same time each day (when you wake up before you eat anything).
#2. Like Al Capshaw said I will third the recommendation to have a Second Valve Choice in mind before going in for surgery.
All the testing and imaging done prior to surgery are still just approximation.
Surgeons do not know the true state until they go in there.
Discuss this with Dr. Speir. For mechanical as a back-up choice, I would definitely ask about On-X. If On-X is not viable option, then a 3rd generation valve from St. Jude (Regent)
We found coumadin is a problem more because of the medical people who do not know how to manage it.
After we began to self-test and self-manage and it became so much easier. On-X valve has a possibility of making coumadin even less of an issue.
#3. Get an MRI / CT for accurate imaging of entire aorta (chest and abdomen) before the surgery.
Echo does not give accurate view of the size of aorta and probable reason for 2 different number you got for the size of the dilatation.
Usually surgeons order these imaging to better plan the surgery and I am surprised you did not get it done. MRI would be a better choice (no radiation exposure) but surgeon may have a preference based on what he is looking for.
#4. Like Marguerite said
put yourself first even if just for a while. Your students and family will be fine.
I will post more if think of other things. Maybe I am being a pump-head
