Question about mobility etc after surgery

[Ragnar]

Hi Anne!
Everyone is different; I can tell you my recent experiences. (four weeks out)

As far a the futon bed. I would have probably found that very uncomfortable. I didn't go as far as to get a recliner chair – however, if you have the means, I think that would have been a good option. We have one of those 'sleep number' mattresses; essentially a glorified air mattress. I found that I was more comfortable on a MUCH lower setting. Meaning, I am almost sleeping in a 'mattress bowl' . Extra pillows helped as well. The first few nights at home, I had three pillows and was almost upright from the waist up. Now I'm down to two pillows.

If you're like me and tend to be a side sleeper and choose to sleep on a regular mattress, you may want to start out with pillows on each side of you – kinda like a nest, to keep you from rolling. I've just started sleeping on my side for a little bit at a time. WOW, is that something that makes me sore.

My bedroom is upstairs as well. I found, even when first at home, I only walked up once a day – to go to bed. I guess if I had to walk up more frequently, I would have adjusted my walking schedule and taken the stairs VERY CAREFULLY. The time that I felt very uneasy walking the stairs lasted a week or two at home. I still take them carefully, but I could, and do, take the stairs multiple times a day w/o too much an issue.

I'm not sure if this helps you. I hope it will at least a little bit.

 

[coffeelover]

Hi Paleogirl!

Just a few things to share with you about postop days after surgery.

1. You may want to limit how many trips a day you take the stairs.The stairs did not make my chest hurt, but the stairs did fatigue me--
I could do stairs when I got home, but if I made too many trips in one day it would wear me out-- too exhausted at night. Increase the total number of trips gradually.

2. I found that sleeping in the recliner was the absolute best
way to sleep. I went back to my bed after two weeks.

3. Set out a piece of paper so you can write down when you took your pain meds--in the middle of the night you are a little fuzzy and come morning you might forget what time you took meds..

4. Did your physioMD talk to you about TED hose? You will wear them postop for several weeks. I took two pair home from the hospital so that I would always have a clean pair.Someone else will have to put these on/take them off for you.

Thinking of you! You have such a positive attitude--that is a huge plus! Go into the O.R. with a huge smile on your face!
coffeelover

 

[gerrychuck]

I am going to weigh in here speaking as a nearly 55 year old physio who has had OHS. Personally, I could no more have gotten up and down from a futon at 8 days post-op than I could have gone up and down the stairs by flapping my arms and flying. The advice given by your physio is not based on your age, it is based on the extreme difficulty in avoiding putting load through your arms (and therefore your sternum; they do attach directly to each other via the clavicle) getting up and down from the floor. They would give this same advice to anyone after OHS, and it will be accurate for most OHS patients. Is it possible you will be able to do it safely? Yes. It is also quite possible that you will not be able to do so safely, and discovering that the hard way carries significant risk. I think the idea of a futon platform is an elegant solution; you don't need to give up what you know works for you, but you will be 100% safer. The stairs do not entail much risk; they just require effort, as others have mentioned. Good luck with finding a solution that works (safely!) for you

 

[Lynlw]

Anne, I was thinking IF you feel like it, maybe it could be really helpful for people in the waiting room, for you to do an update here and let everyone know how things worked best for you or anything that surprised you the first couple weeks home. Especially since you ARE in very good shape going into surgery. Of course everyone recovers differently but it could help others to see what was easier or harder than you expected since you gave so many details and asked good questions in this thread

 

[clay_from_nj]

I second Lyn's request. Anne, we have been following you and getting a great account of your situation and concerns leading up to surgery, that it would be extremely educational and useful to others if you continue your story here post-surgery. You might even want to consider gathering all the posts together and distilling them into a book.

 

[Duffey]

Yes, I'd like to know your experience, Anne. I hope you'll update.

 

[Paleowoman]

I will respond soon but things going badly at the moment. I wrote something of it in the post surgery forum last week. Stomach (real stomach, not abdomen) problems continuing and have lost huge amount of weight, am seriously underweight now, saw hosital doctor today who has done a load of blood tests and will contact me later. He thinks I will need to see gastroenterologist - stomach might have some strictures or something. I hope not but the doc says I shouldn't have these problems continuing three weeks after surgery and he seemed concerned - he knows me very well.

 

[ottagal]

Sorry to hear you are still dealing with 'stomach' issues and hopefully a GI specialist will be of help to you. I know how frustrating it is to have post-op problems (although different from you), as I had a number of them. :. I lost alot of my body weight after surgery and I am very petite. It took a long time to get back to my original weight. I sincerely hope things get better for you.
Best wishes,

 

[mbeard]

My heart and soul are with you right now. Praying you feel better soon.

Sorry to hear you are still dealing with 'stomach' issues and hopefully a GI specialist will be of help to you. I know how frustrating it is to have post-op problems (although different from you), as I had a number of them. :. I lost alot of my body weight after surgery and I am very petite. It took a long time to get back to my original weight. I sincerely hope things get better for you.
Best wishes,

 

[Paleowoman]

Update on my mobility after surgery !

I'm sure my weight lifting helped me because at no time since surgery have I had any problems getting up from sitting position as my legs are so strong. Also I could pick things up from the floor more or less soon after surgery by squatting, no problem. Stairs, when I got home, however, proved exhausting to do with the number of times I had to go up and down them due to urinary frequency and tummy problems, upwards 20 + times a day, plus I was breathless from tiredness and weakness due to weight loss. Red Cross lent us a commode which is proving invaluable for when I just can't do stairs anymore. I'm sleeping downstairs on the sofa as I need to sleep in an upright position due to sternal pain (surgery was three weeks ago today) and it's much warmer in our living room than in our bedroom - not that I could sleep on the floor ! My husband bought a futon sofa bed but it's no good sleeping upstairs in the cold. I'm too weak to go outside walking but am walking fine in the living room and doing the post surgical physio exercises I was instructed to do fine too.

I'm seeing a gastroenterologist this week about my ongoing stomach problems and weight loss - now 4 kgs in three weeks and am seriously underweight. My blood tests yesterday were mostly okay apart from low sodium (not dangerously low) and low haemoglobin. Doc thinks the low sodium is still an effect of the diuretic which I stopped 10 days ago and he's told me to add salt to my food. Low haemoglobin he said is understandable after heart surgery and I should eat red meat....well I would, red meat was one of my staples before surgery but with these stomach problems it's difficult to know what will or won't make it worse. I will experiment !

 

[Guyswell]

Glad to hear things are looking up for you. You're over the hump now. You can add plenty of extra calories to your diet by drinking Ensure Plus. Not sure if it's available in the U.K. When I had jaw surgery many years ago and was limited to a liquid diet for eight weeks. I was losing weight but when I added a few of these per day, I started gaining weight. Here's a link http://ensure.com/products/ensure-plus-retail.

 

[Paleowoman]

That Ensure looks similar to what I've been given. So far I have problems with it…..I can drink about a third of a litle bottle and then stomach problems/transferred cardiac pain, plus high blood glucose. I'm now trying full fat yoghurt with honey, also a bit of chocolate. Eating a bit of fish and eggs. It's just not enough calories for me yet. Fingers crossed the gastrodoc will have an idea tomorrow.

 

[Lynlw]

Sorry to hear about your ongoing stomach problems, but thank you for updating on this thread, I think it will be helpful to others wondering the same type of things and getting the house set up pre op.

I hope the GI is able to help you, I know how tough it can be to run into stomache issues after heart surgery when you are trying to recover and need good nutrion to help you heal. Justin has had GI problems after a few of his surgeries, but after the 1st one, it was mainly because of pain meds. His first surgery ( at 10 days) when he got off the vent and finally able to feed, he had awful projectile vomiting almost every time we tried to feed him so after a couple days he was diagnosed w/ pyloric stenosis so had surgery for that when he was 17 days old. (then we had to feed him small amouns (1 oz) every 2 hours around the clock 24/7..it was exhausting for a couple months) after that things were pretty good, This summer he went to a GI doc because he got nauseous or vomited pretty often for no reason we could think of. He was diagnosed w/ Bile reflux (and acid reflux) where bile goes back into the stomach and esophagus, luckily meds help . It turns out they are finding this isnt that rare in adults who had pyloric stenosis surgery as babies.
We dont know how long he has had it, but I think it probably had something to do w/ his stomach issues post op. Have you had stomach problems before?
Hopefully they can find you problem and it is something easy to take care of with meds.

 

[dornole]

I hope you find calories you can tolerate. Do you think you might be able to add heavy cream to a food you are tolerating? After we switched off formula, that is what we used for our preemie twins who vomited so much they had trouble maintaining their weight. It is very calorie dense. We used to make condensed soup with it. Can of Campbells, and can of cream. I hope the gastro doc has some practical ideas for you.

 

[Paleowoman]

Saw the GI guy earlier and am having an abdominal ultrasound and barium swallow and meal this afternoon, results tomorrow. The doc thinks that the problem is most likely to be 'shock' to my stomach/gut and that it can take months to recover but he was concerned because of my weight loss and because I haven't got reserves. Fingers crossed it is just 'shock' and that I can recover more quickly.

Lyn - Justin really has been through the wars right from the start I admire how he and your family are able to manage, it must be so demoralising at times.

 

[clay_from_nj]

and because I haven't got reserves.

And to think that some of us work incredibly hard to get rid of our "reserves"...