SS Sailor back in hospital... and out!!!!!

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S

South Sound Sailor

Well it's been quite a week. I wanted to share this info with others and I apologize, it's a long story.

This past weekend several of you responded to my questions about abdominal bloating. Some of you suggested periocardiac tamponade (sorry... sp? or I may have got the term wrong). I was checked by my surgeon's PA on Sunday. He did not have any concerns. By Tuesday morning, the bloating seemed to be minimal but I noticed by body temp was consistently under 97.5. Then I started seeing readings around 97 and lower.

By Monday evening I was having SOB, high level of fatigue and dropping BP (approx 100/70). Tuesday night my temp dropped to 95.5, I got very nauseated (dry heaves), BP dropped to 75/60. I immediately called 911 and paramedics arrived in minutes. Unfortunately upon arrival, my temp bounced back up to 96 and my BP increased to 100/70. Parameds spent about 20 minutes with me but we made the decision that I did not need to be transported to hospital. Big mistake.

Within a couple of hours, same symptoms returned; lowered BP, decreased body temp, dry heaving, poor coordination, blurred vision... and I started to panic. Fortunately my visiting sister was here and on Wednesday morning, around 4:30 am she immediately drove me to the E/R (10 minutes from home). In a nutshell, I was told I was having periocardial effusion that was rapidly turning into tamponade. All the symptoms I listed above were clearly evident in E/R. Within a couple of hours, I was having blood pumped out of my pericardial cavity; total about 650 - 700 CCs. It filled up a medium sized (bigger than sandhwich) zip-lock bag. Surgeon commented that the blood was clearly "old" blood and had been accumulating for several days/hours. I received 6 units of frozen plasma plus several units of saline.

All of this took place early Wednesday morning. Before the blood was pulled out, I came very close to going into a panic attack. My breathing was very difficult and I knew something serious was happening. Within minutes after the initial pull of blood out of my cavity, I started feeling relief or at least the feeling of having a panic attack subside. I had to go into the CT machine several times to complete the needle insertion procedure and that was the worst part... waiting and not being able to take a breath because of my SOB.

After that initial procedure was over, I had a central line inserted (yes, now I have "twin" central line scars right next to each other!) and a gravity pump was hooked up to me to pull more blood out of my cavity. The collection pod on the pump held about 3/4 cup and they had to empty it several times. I subsequently had 2 chest x-rays and 2 ultrasounds. Blood flow into the gravity pump stopped about 24 hours ago. Everyone is feeling very confident that all blood has been removed and any further leakage has stopped plus no sign of clotted blood remaining in the cavity. I asked for and received extra attention to be given to my lungs because now I was concerned about pleural effusion; not related to the above problem but I figured they might as well watch this closely too. Fortunately no problems there and I'm rapidly regaining my deep breathing ability.

Yesterday, about 24 hours after I had been worked over on Wednesday, I started to feel better and walked the halls for about 25 minutes. I walked this morning for 35 minutes and felt a WHOLE LOT better. Also got my appetite back late last evening. I still have some abdominal bloat and asked for the ultrasound to take a view and was told that there is no indication of inappropriate fluid collection. Cardio doc (not the surgeon) advised me he sees no sign of pleural effusion. I'm confident the abdominal bloat is just what happens to me when I become inactive for a long period of time plus I know I've had a lot of fluid and water in-take these past 3 days. So that's what I've been up to since Tuesday night. I did comment to one of the nurses (not in ICU) that I was very impressed with how calm everyone was in the E/R. She told me that she had heard about my situation and then she told me that it was actually a very serious situation and the more severe the situation, the more E/R docs, nurses and technicians are programmed to act calmly. At the risk of sounding over-dramatic, what happened to me is about as close as a life/death situation as I've ever been in. Even when I was at my worst Wednesday morning, I still doubted that I needed to go in to the hospital. But when I saw my temp was well below 96, I knew something bad was happening. Cardio tells me he's confident I'll now resume recovery from AVR (which I'm having zero to very minimal issues with). My coumadin dosage has been reduced 5 mg/day to 2.5 mg/day. When I was admitted to the hospital on Wednesday, my INR was 7.2. No one would commit to saying that my elevated INR contributed to the problems I had this week but I will be checking my INR daily for a couple of weeks. For those of you who initially gave me advice about tamponade, thank you. For 24 hours, my BP has been running 110/70 (and that's without Metropolol), body temp 98.2 to 99.0, weight amazingly has not changed very much and I received great medical care this week as I did last week. Bottom line - do not second-guess symptoms after VR surgery. If I had to do it over again, I would have had the paramedics transport me to the hospital instead of waiting 4 hours. I'm back on the road to recovery and hopefully no more speed bumps. This is one bump in the road I will never forget.
 
WOW. Sorry to hear about your setback but it sounds like you are back on track. Keep us posted.
 
So sorry to hear this, but thanks for sharing. A valuable lesson for all to go to the hospital immediately when in doubt. I hope your recovery continues with no more bumps (that was a big one!) and that you keep us up to date on your progress. Best wishes,
Phyllis
 
Wow is right! What a frightening experience! So glad you're much better now Steve. Take care.
 
Sailor Steve,

Wishing you SMOOOTH SAILING from here!

All the best, Betsy
 
Steve, what a horrible thing to go through....you were wise to keep checking your temp and BP; and of course, going to the ER when you did....Now settle down and stop scaring us:)
 
Steve,

Wow, that sounds like an incredibly scary experience but I am so glad to hear that you are doing well and that you reacted in time to avoid any further complications. The fact that you were able to post such a detailed, coherent depiction of your experience says to me that you are doing pretty good. As a recent post-operative member myself, it still amazes me how many "bumps" can occur on the road to recovery. I think I naievly assumed that once I made it through surgery and got out of the hospital I was home free, which of course we know isn't the case. This is a good lesson to others how important it is to continue to monitor your vitals and to pay attention to symptoms you may be expriencing, which could be an indicator of something serious, such as yours Steve. I am still very SOB and cannot sleep except practically sitting up, and I am 4 1/2 weeks post-op. It's amazing how soon your symptoms subsided once they resolved your pericardial effusion. Sometimes I just wonder what is "normal" to feel after OHS and what is cause for alarm?
At any rate Steve, so glad to hear that you are doing well and please keep us posted as to your progress!
 
Yikes! :eek: Sorry to hear about the bump in the road, but glad to hear it's behind you and you are back on the straight recovery road. Best wishes continue....
 
Yikes, SSS ... just READING what you went through ... made me a bit nervous.

*shudders*

Very sorry you went through that setback/experience. Thoughts/prayers coming your way.....



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"You got to roll with the punches" ... Van Halen ... 'Jump'
 
I am so sorry to hear what you went through, but so happy to hear you are feeling much better now. It is amazing what we can deal with. Did you go to the Er that you had your surgery in. I am having my surgery in NY about an hour from where I live. At the risk of sounding like an idiot what doe SOB mean?

Hang in there.

xoxo
Kathy M
 
steve

steve

Dear steve, I was wondering the last few days why you have'nt been posting, and had a feeling something was wrong. Thank you for posting everything you went through. Before all of us went into surgery that's all we were worried about, I think more of us need to talk about all the things that can go wrong in recovery because alot of things can go wrong. I'm 3 weeks post-op and very happy so far everything is going well but I don't think I'm" out of the woods" yet and I watch and listen to my body everyday for any changes to be suspicious of. I sure hope the rest of your recovery will be uneventful!! Take care Debbie:)
 
KathyM said:
...At the risk of sounding like an idiot what doe SOB mean?...
Since I've asked that same question, Kathy, I'll tell you what the reply was, "shortness of breath."
 
Some of us do have speed bumps jump up out of no where. Glad to see you heeded our advice. Another thing I'm elated with, they didn't give you Vit K but Plasma instead. Kudos to that! Some of these Docs think they have to throw Vit K in you to drop INR quickly. It sets you up for danger though it does bring your INR down, plus it's terribly hard to get the INR back up afterwards.

Come on down to the Anticoag forum with your Coumadin problems. We aren't Doctors, but we are self dosers and testers that have a really good handle on how this drug works.
 
wow, that was quite a ride. Glad to hear it all worked out well. I was in our Prompt Care unit the other day (for a possible broken bone that wasn't) and the triage nurse said they get a few post-op valvers in with fevers and stuff from time to time. Not often they walk in under their own steam for sore ankles, though !

Take care of yourself, keep listening to your body, and best wishes smooth sailing from here on out.
 
What a terrible thing to have to go through. Glad to hear you're doing better. That makes me anxious. Scary I'm less than four weeks post-op. Hope you continue to do well.
Goodl Luck Earline
 
SS Sailor back in Hospital and out

SS Sailor back in Hospital and out

Hey guy this is the same thing that happen to me that I told you about on the phone. Did you go to St. Peter or back to Tacoma? Mine taken two and half weeks to come on. Went through the same symptoms dry heaves couldn't get a full breath then I collapsed on the floor. Wife had to call the medics. When mine first started the PA told my wife that I just had a cold, taken them six days to finally figure it out. Hang in there it will get better.
 
Gosh, this is a really difficult situation. I am very glad to hear that you have pulled through Steve. Sending well-wishes in your direction. Hang in there.

Mark
 
RWSP... my sister drove me to St. Petes e/r. Took me less than 10 minutes to get there. Medical care was awesome at St. Petes. As you know, the drive to Tacoma would have been over 40 minutes and I have no doubt I would have been dangerously close to passing out or having a significant panic attack. Thanks for the post. I hope all is well with you. And yes, I do remember you telling me about your own similar story.

To everyone, thanks for the words of support and encouragement. Really helps to ward off probably the biggest setback any of us can encounter; chronic depression. Just knowing there are others out there who have experienced the same things I'm going through and who can truly empathize with me makes a world of difference. The reality for all of us, VR surgery or OHS of any kind is life-altering and ultimately the key to survival is connecting with others who can give assurance that there is indeed life on the other side of the peak.
 
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