cldlhd
Well-known member
Well it's been a week and it's definitely on the upside, thanks to all out here for the great combo of knowledge and support.
I
The way my wife describes it when I awoke from the operation I was similar to King Kong when he came to and realized he was chained to a stage in Manhattan and no longer on skull island I tried to leap up from table and was yelling , probably about the tube, sounds pretty crazy to me but I don't remember any of it . Kind of like those nights when I was younger and I'd bump into people and they'd tell me all the crazy **** I did the previous Friday , Saturday or whenever. Although I imagine those nights were a bit more fun. Doing good but had a few bumps. Shortly after I came to they discovered a large bubble of air between my lung and my ribcage which was preventing my lung from inflating. So some Dr came in and told me to put my arm over my head and then they put sheets over my head and told me not to get claustrophobic because I had a breathing tube in my nose.He told me not to move because he was going to punch a hole between my ribs to let the air out and if I moved he might put it thru my lung or spleen, so at that point I knew he was good with motivation. He did his thing and it sounded like I backed over the spikes then I breathed in . They decided that as long as the hole was there they might as well add a drainage tube .
The uncommon but not entirely rare other problem I had was that I had a cath up my ....errrr...ummmm..... so long my bladder decided that apparently it wasn't needed anymore so when I felt the need to pee it was a no go . The solution was a tool that must have been loved by Nurse Ratchet- a straight cath . That was the most pain I had thru the whole event ......until I had to pee again and still nothing, the 2nd time was not good to say the least. The third time we waited and it finally worked , thank God because if it came to it I had a plan to grab that rod off them on their 3rd "assault" and jam it thru my temple.
The results apparently were great, I say apparently because I never saw the surgeon ,he told my Mom and Wife while I was still under. The post surgery TEE showed no regurgitation , EF 70% and no wall motion abnormalities. He said the 'numbers on the valve were optimal' and all in all my Mom said he seemed very pleased with the result, and himself-ha! My follow up TEE showed a LVEF of 55% which strangely enough is lower than what it was 5 months ago ( 63% ) . Maybe that's up to the heart being in a weakened state and it'll improve. Also my resting heart rate was normally 55 to 70 bpm and now it's around 105. I assume that's due to the surgery also.
Through it all the staff was great and very helpful and I have to give it up to my wife who slept every night in the room with me while my Mom went back to the comfy hotel. If only we had the operation at Penn Presbyterian which was built in the 90's and is much more modern than Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania . All recovery rooms are private with a couch that pulls out into a bed . She's always suffering because of me one way or the other...
I
The way my wife describes it when I awoke from the operation I was similar to King Kong when he came to and realized he was chained to a stage in Manhattan and no longer on skull island I tried to leap up from table and was yelling , probably about the tube, sounds pretty crazy to me but I don't remember any of it . Kind of like those nights when I was younger and I'd bump into people and they'd tell me all the crazy **** I did the previous Friday , Saturday or whenever. Although I imagine those nights were a bit more fun. Doing good but had a few bumps. Shortly after I came to they discovered a large bubble of air between my lung and my ribcage which was preventing my lung from inflating. So some Dr came in and told me to put my arm over my head and then they put sheets over my head and told me not to get claustrophobic because I had a breathing tube in my nose.He told me not to move because he was going to punch a hole between my ribs to let the air out and if I moved he might put it thru my lung or spleen, so at that point I knew he was good with motivation. He did his thing and it sounded like I backed over the spikes then I breathed in . They decided that as long as the hole was there they might as well add a drainage tube .
The uncommon but not entirely rare other problem I had was that I had a cath up my ....errrr...ummmm..... so long my bladder decided that apparently it wasn't needed anymore so when I felt the need to pee it was a no go . The solution was a tool that must have been loved by Nurse Ratchet- a straight cath . That was the most pain I had thru the whole event ......until I had to pee again and still nothing, the 2nd time was not good to say the least. The third time we waited and it finally worked , thank God because if it came to it I had a plan to grab that rod off them on their 3rd "assault" and jam it thru my temple.
The results apparently were great, I say apparently because I never saw the surgeon ,he told my Mom and Wife while I was still under. The post surgery TEE showed no regurgitation , EF 70% and no wall motion abnormalities. He said the 'numbers on the valve were optimal' and all in all my Mom said he seemed very pleased with the result, and himself-ha! My follow up TEE showed a LVEF of 55% which strangely enough is lower than what it was 5 months ago ( 63% ) . Maybe that's up to the heart being in a weakened state and it'll improve. Also my resting heart rate was normally 55 to 70 bpm and now it's around 105. I assume that's due to the surgery also.
Through it all the staff was great and very helpful and I have to give it up to my wife who slept every night in the room with me while my Mom went back to the comfy hotel. If only we had the operation at Penn Presbyterian which was built in the 90's and is much more modern than Hospital at the University of Pennsylvania . All recovery rooms are private with a couch that pulls out into a bed . She's always suffering because of me one way or the other...
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