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Magic8Ball

Well-known member
Joined
Sep 26, 2006
Messages
562
Location
Perth, West Australia.
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 :D :D

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.
 
Welcome back......

Welcome back......

*Welcome back....I think you, and everyone who goes through this 'hu mun gus' ordeal are incredibly brave and strong people. I hope you continue to recover 'easily'. Best wishes. 8)
 
You sound terrific! Glad everything worked out so well. Now you can have a nice holiday season, and rest of your life.
 
I'm glad you fared so well!
Regarding your no craving of wine, I realized about a month ago that I was squandering my opportunity to drink it (I've got a bovine and no coumadin), so I've been making up for lost time.;)
I'll have a glass this evening, and offer a toast to your continued good health and recovery!:)
 
Glad to see you home and doing so well and thanks for all the suggestions for those in the waiting room- best wishes for a speedy and uneventful recovery!
 
Thanks so much for the detailed update. It is so useful to those of us that haven't gone through this yet. I am so glad to here you are doing so well. It makes having to have this done some-what easier. Have a great holiday season!!
 
What a great recount of your experience! Thanks. I'm sure those in the Waiting Room will most especially appreciate it. Since I only truly remember about 30 seconds in ICU, it is always interesting to hear what I "missed" from others. Gotta love those amnesia drugs!

Stretch....even though it's not an American kind of word, "knackered" perfectly describes how you will feel those first few days home. ;)

Well done, Magic!!! Well done!

Keep up the good work!

Marguerite
 
Well just woke up from first nights 'sleep' at home..everything was comfortable but it was too dam quiet and all i could hear was the valve banging away in my chest.....

The two sleeping tablets probably got me a few hours but i guess i'll have to speak to the doc today about getting something a little stronger so i can get some sleep in the first few weeks.

I'll try to pipe up with anything i remember about ICU, i remember about 3/4 bed baths, i remember thinking that they were all having a party just out of sight in the middle of the night :p, but mostly i remember that it wasn't that bad, like i said by the third day i could have killed the guy who invented the icu mattress and i felt pretty low but i was prepared and knew everything that would be happening, what tubes were likely to come out and when and all that was thanks to this site and the great people on it.

I never had one surprise other than finding that i have a large scar on my right leg where a 'drain' was put in....i think it was something to do with the plug used to seal me up after my angiogram but i'll check this with the surgeon when i see him...it doesn't hurt and i guess only my wife will have to look at it :D although i don't think she is in any rush to visit me in that department......;)

Overall, now, with it all a week ago it was no biggie, if you are in the waiting room then you will be surprised how quickly you get over it, i'd say 3 days on a downward slope and everything else is daily improvement. Of course this could be because i was aysmtomatic and only 36 (37 2 days ago btw) but i saw guys having tripple bypass passing me in the hall having the same level of improvement.

If they could just find a way to do the surgery without cracking your chest open it would almost become day surgery ;)

One thing i forgot to mention was weight loss, the ward controller stated prior that he'd expect an initial weight gain and then eventually discharged with a 2kilo weight loss. I was dischared with a 7kilo weight loss and my bowels are not exactly fireing every day so now i am 18stone instead of 19stone which is a good start.

Regards.
 
I just re-read your post.....darnit, I was hoping to go to Outback tomorrow night for a big dinner just before surgery, guess I better not!! :D
 
Welcome home! Great to read your posts again! I'm glad to see they didn't take out your sense of humor when they replaced that
valve ;)

I'm assuming that "plug" scar from the angiogram is near your groin. If so don't worry about it. It will go away in a few weeks, but you'll be able to have "visits" way before then.

I remember thinking the ICU people were flirting with each other and yelling across the room the whole night. My roommates in the regular ward a few days later had thought so too. Now I'm wondering if this is common to ICU's, or common to waking up with all those drugs still coursing through your system ????
 
AlonnolA said:
I'm assuming that "plug" scar from the angiogram is near your groin. If so don't worry about it. It will go away in a few weeks, but you'll be able to have "visits" way before then.
Nah, looks like he had to open up the groin to remove the plug for a drain that came out of my thigh, ive got a 4 or 5 inch scar which goes across the 'underpant' line of the top of your leg and the person who stitched that up didn't take the same care as the one who did my chest closure....it's gonna be more than a few weeks before this one goes away, 6+ at least.

AlonnolA said:
I remember thinking the ICU people were flirting with each other and yelling across the room the whole night. My roommates in the regular ward a few days later had thought so too. Now I'm wondering if this is common to ICU's, or common to waking up with all those drugs still coursing through your system ????
Yeh, sounded like a weird sex party but probably just pizza arriving combined with morphine in us....wasn't that good to be disturbed by people having 'fun' though...

Lynn said:
just re-read your post.....darnit, I was hoping to go to Outback tomorrow night for a big dinner just before surgery, guess I better not!!
Well its only a suggestion but i think a pretty good one, i've just visited the toilet for the 3rd time in 8 days today for 'number 2' :rolleyes: and its been ok. I've taken lactulose since being on the ward day 3 just to keep everything soft and taken a little senacot twice to get a few cramps going on down there. Even with all my 'prep work' i still had a couple of days of feeling a little bloated.....not sure how bad it would have been if i'd wiped out a t-bone steak the night before surgery and had it sitting in there for 5 days.....
The only reason i could see for the pre surgery blow out was if you thought you were not going to make it and that just wasn't an option i was prepared to consider so all my work went into preparing myself best for the recovery..
 
Welcome back Magic8Ball

Welcome back Magic8Ball

I know what you are saying with feeling knackered but that should pass after about 3 weeks in those first few weeks a short nap each day will give you a lift to see you through the day. I must say I found sleeping in a bed from day one better than a recliner, getting out of the recliner without using your arms and putting pressure on the chest was harder than getting in and out of bed.
Like you I found the thought of surgery harder than the actual surgery, hey I have even signed up for it again in the future.
Take it easy, rest and do the recommended walking and 6 weeks after surgery you should feel great and just have a bit of residual soreness, I found this lasted about 3-4 months, after that it should be all smooth ahead for a young 37 year old. :)
 
Always love reading your posts ;0)

Always love reading your posts ;0)

Especiallly one as wonderful as this !! So glad that things went so well - and continue. I am sure that your attitude has a great deal to do with you success. Look forward to hearingmore good news - thanks for taking the time to share.

Have a great day!
 

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