Magic8Ball
Well-known member
Well it's 2pm on Monday 27th November and i'm sitting in my parents lounge after being discharged today with an inr of 2.4.
I'm knackered.
Everything has gone very well as far as i can tell, surgery was on Monday 20th and i remember waking up in ICU with all tubes still attached. Surgery had gone well although i had an episode of a-fib which meant they had to shock me to steady things out.
Tuesday was all tubes out out out, i remember the breathing tube comming out and it was no biggie but the whole day was a bit of a blur.
I was in ICU until Wednesday midday as there is no cardiac stepdown unit here and the only thing i will say is that ICU mattress was the most uncomfortable thing ever invented, it was this super self inflating thing that was meant to move you around to prevent bedsores/clots etc but basically it took me ages to get comfortable and then the bugger would deflate/inflate and move me around and make me uncomfortable again...one more night on that mattress would have pushed me over the edge...but it was uphill from there.
I was on two backup pacemakers until the wednesday and then on one until the thursday and then each day thursday/friday/saturday/sunday i felt better and better each day....quite remarkable the recovery rate.....
None of the tubes comming out have left a mental scar although surprisingly the pacing wires are the ones that made me the most anxious, probably because they had been used and i didn't really want them out incase i dropped back into a-fib.
I think i had a potassium injection before the wires came out which i think affected my heart beat and made me a little more aware of it just before the wires came out which is another reason i was reluctant for the wires to come out.
My memory has been fine with no 'loss' of function or recall other than the morphine induced days....i'm still a sarcastic bugger and the one liners have been flowing since Thursday.
So any tips you ask......
Get a V shaped pillow to take in with you...even the ward beds are hard and i pulled a muscle/trapped a nerve in my left shoulder getting in and out of bet so by thursday i was very uncomfortable but good old mum bought one of these pillows and sent it in and it was all good from then on.
If you are a smoker give it up BEFORE surgery and get the lungs cleared, i am not a smoker and i probably had 2-3 coughing sessions a day bringing up two small lumps of crap a day, it was not nice but no real biggie...but some of the poor buggers on the ward that i heard coughing all day long and bringing up buckets of phlem i could have cried for them on their behalf, it sounded bloody awful, so i've done my duty on passing the message on, use the information as you choose.
Take nothing in, i had one small bag with minimal toiletries, two pairs of streachy shorts and two button up tops plus slippers. My wife brought in clean ones each day. I never wore any socks, underpants and i never felt like reading or doing anything until saturday but the hospital provided free daily newspapers and that was enough.
Eat lightly the week before, don't go on a last bender as your digestive system will pay for it. I gradually reduced my intake of food the week before and ate nothing spicy etc or heavy, ive been to the loo twice since surgery and things are slow but because i've been a good boy i don't feel sick or bloated. I have been taking lactulose to keep everything soft and will be taking some senna to get some movement in there tonight but being active around the house should also get things moving.
My final tip which is totally personal is that i'm glad i chose mechanical at 36 and a life on warafin so hopefully i don't have to go through this week again. To those of you who have gone tissue with the realisation that further surgeries are required i take my hat off to you, its something i couldn't have done, the tick is with me for good and its not that annoying even now, the warafin will take some getting used to but i've cut down my alcohol over the past two months to very little and i have had none in 7 days with absolutely no craving for a glass of wine at present. I'm sure this will gradually change over the comming weeks but thats fine. Basically i think i'm trying to say be sure you are comfortable with your decision and you understand all aspects and implications of it. I did, I'm happy, please take the time to make sure you are.
Don't watch any comedy shows in hospital, i got about two minutes into "Funniest Home Videos" and had to change channel as i was shaking with laughter and my chest was hurting.....even in your darkest moments you can still laugh at someone else running into a lampost
Well, time to read the last weeks posts and see what i've missed, if anyone has any questions feel free to drop me a line or post on this thread as i will be doing very little for the next week.
I'm knackered.
Everything has gone very well as far as i can tell, surgery was on Monday 20th and i remember waking up in ICU with all tubes still attached. Surgery had gone well although i had an episode of a-fib which meant they had to shock me to steady things out.
Tuesday was all tubes out out out, i remember the breathing tube comming out and it was no biggie but the whole day was a bit of a blur.
I was in ICU until Wednesday midday as there is no cardiac stepdown unit here and the only thing i will say is that ICU mattress was the most uncomfortable thing ever invented, it was this super self inflating thing that was meant to move you around to prevent bedsores/clots etc but basically it took me ages to get comfortable and then the bugger would deflate/inflate and move me around and make me uncomfortable again...one more night on that mattress would have pushed me over the edge...but it was uphill from there.
I was on two backup pacemakers until the wednesday and then on one until the thursday and then each day thursday/friday/saturday/sunday i felt better and better each day....quite remarkable the recovery rate.....
None of the tubes comming out have left a mental scar although surprisingly the pacing wires are the ones that made me the most anxious, probably because they had been used and i didn't really want them out incase i dropped back into a-fib.
I think i had a potassium injection before the wires came out which i think affected my heart beat and made me a little more aware of it just before the wires came out which is another reason i was reluctant for the wires to come out.
My memory has been fine with no 'loss' of function or recall other than the morphine induced days....i'm still a sarcastic bugger and the one liners have been flowing since Thursday.
So any tips you ask......
Get a V shaped pillow to take in with you...even the ward beds are hard and i pulled a muscle/trapped a nerve in my left shoulder getting in and out of bet so by thursday i was very uncomfortable but good old mum bought one of these pillows and sent it in and it was all good from then on.
If you are a smoker give it up BEFORE surgery and get the lungs cleared, i am not a smoker and i probably had 2-3 coughing sessions a day bringing up two small lumps of crap a day, it was not nice but no real biggie...but some of the poor buggers on the ward that i heard coughing all day long and bringing up buckets of phlem i could have cried for them on their behalf, it sounded bloody awful, so i've done my duty on passing the message on, use the information as you choose.
Take nothing in, i had one small bag with minimal toiletries, two pairs of streachy shorts and two button up tops plus slippers. My wife brought in clean ones each day. I never wore any socks, underpants and i never felt like reading or doing anything until saturday but the hospital provided free daily newspapers and that was enough.
Eat lightly the week before, don't go on a last bender as your digestive system will pay for it. I gradually reduced my intake of food the week before and ate nothing spicy etc or heavy, ive been to the loo twice since surgery and things are slow but because i've been a good boy i don't feel sick or bloated. I have been taking lactulose to keep everything soft and will be taking some senna to get some movement in there tonight but being active around the house should also get things moving.
My final tip which is totally personal is that i'm glad i chose mechanical at 36 and a life on warafin so hopefully i don't have to go through this week again. To those of you who have gone tissue with the realisation that further surgeries are required i take my hat off to you, its something i couldn't have done, the tick is with me for good and its not that annoying even now, the warafin will take some getting used to but i've cut down my alcohol over the past two months to very little and i have had none in 7 days with absolutely no craving for a glass of wine at present. I'm sure this will gradually change over the comming weeks but thats fine. Basically i think i'm trying to say be sure you are comfortable with your decision and you understand all aspects and implications of it. I did, I'm happy, please take the time to make sure you are.
Don't watch any comedy shows in hospital, i got about two minutes into "Funniest Home Videos" and had to change channel as i was shaking with laughter and my chest was hurting.....even in your darkest moments you can still laugh at someone else running into a lampost
Well, time to read the last weeks posts and see what i've missed, if anyone has any questions feel free to drop me a line or post on this thread as i will be doing very little for the next week.