Update on Bbuck's setback

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SusQ

Well-known member
Joined
Jan 11, 2012
Messages
90
Location
Escanaba, Michigan
Well, we are home. We are very lucky to have gone in when we did. Within 12 hours of hubby's arrival at the other hospital, his blood pressure had plummeted to 80-something over 50-something (the NP didn't want to tell me the exact pressure, but the look on her face spoke volumes). They quickly pumped him with 4 units of plasma to bring his INR down to a safe level to operate and rushed him in.

That was Friday and he's made amazing progress since then. For the first time since before the surgery, he's been awake more than he's been asleep today. He has color and an appetite again. His walks today were much faster than he has been able to manage and he wasn't short of breath when he was done. He also slept almost completely flat in the hospital bed last night, something else he was not able to do prior.

Hopefully now he can continue his recovery like we expected. He said he felt better today than any other day since the first surgery.

On a side note, I swear odd things only happen to us. The night after this second surgery, we were both asleep and I was awoken by a loud thump. I jumped up from the cot they'd put in his room for me and sat there for a second to determine if I'd really heard something or if it was just a dream. I thought I heard water dripping, so I used the flashlight on my phone to look around the room. On the floor, just past the foot of the cot, was most of one of the room's ceiling tiles laying in a puddle of water. A hot water pipe had sprung a leak, soaked the tile below it and huge chunk fell to the floor. The nurses rallied quickly and got us all moved to another room, all the while apologizing for the inconvenience. They really were fantastic about getting his pain under control and doing everything they could for us.

So last night, in the new room, hubby is asleep and I get all settled in. I was just dozing off when I heard a light whistling. It got louder and louder. I got up to figure out what it was and the noise was coming from the thermostat. Ugh. They have the same kind of thermostats as we do at work...they hiss sometimes and when we call maintenance, they just turn it either up or down. So I turned it. Up made it worse, down stopped it. But geeze, can't a girl get a decent night's sleep without having to fix the building??? :biggrin2:

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Anyway, just thought I'd update. Hoping hubby's first night home will go well and that he'll get back to healing. Thanks for the well wishes.
 
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It must be nice to be home and in his own bed! Best wishes continuing for BBuck's recovery.
 
I'm glad to hear Buck is doing better and is back home. Its really good you took him to the ER, and that hospital was quick in realising he needed to be transferred to a larger center. Did he end up at the hospital he had his valve surgery at?

I was wonderring, When he went to the cardiologist a 2-3 days earlier and was having symptons then, did they do an echo or anything to look at the heart? I know it's possible to detect pericardial effusions by changes in the EKG, but IF it was me, I'm not sure I would have much faith in the Cardiologist that didnt do further testing with his symptons so soon after heart surgery. (altho if they did order tests thats a different story) I never personally had OHS or effusions, but from going thru them with Justin after a couple of his surgeries, I can only imagine how much better he felt having the fluid removed, even tho he was in more pain from the surgery. Justin was "luckier" that even tho he needed fluid drained a few times, it was always caught early enough to avoiding going back to the OR. Just so you dont worry about Justin's coming back a few times after his was drained, that was his 2nd OHS back in 89/90 they've learned alot since then about treating pericardial and/or pluerall effusions. Is buck on any meds now like steriods or antimflammatories?

You must be exhausted its draining for a love one to spend even more time in the hospital in normal circumstances, let alone all the extra "fun" you had. Be sure to try to tae care of yourself and eat and rest when you can now that you're home. Also I know how discouraging it can be (for the whole family), to be making progress in the surgery recovery and then feeling like you are back to square 1. I'll say exra prayers all the bumps are behind you now and every day is a little better.
 
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OMG!!!! I am glad to hear that you guys are home again and I will certainly say a prayer that his progress continues in a very good direction. Geez after what you both have endured, you need to schedule a vacation to somewhere warm with gentle breezes. Oh cabana boy!!! is a good statement to repeat over and over. God Bless You All.:)
 
No, we did not end up at the same hospital he had his AVR at. Because he was transported by ambulance we had two choices...a hospital 60 miles away that is most well known for it's horrible service and a hospital 100 miles away that his PCP is associated with but we knew nothing about. The original surgery was performed in Chicago, approximately 350 miles from our home.

And speaking of the location of his original surgery, I have never in my life ever felt like I had to defend a decision so much. The ball was dropped on us. Hubby's original diagnosis was done by the VA and pretty much when they found out we were not going to have them perform the surgery, we were on our own. And at the time hubby was in transition from the VA for his PCP to a local doc, but hadn't had his first appointment yet. Same with the only local cardiologist. He's so swamped that appointments are hard to get and hubby hadn't even seen him yet. But due to the severity of his regurge, we opted to be more proactive in choosing a place instead of waiting. And because of his age and the extensive work he needed, we chose to go with a surgeon/facility that sees thousands of these a year, not a hundred. However, now that he's had this emergency/bump in the road, this decision has been questioned (intensely and almost rudely) by everyone. The ER docs (one was from the crappy hospital we won't ever go to and he was really rude), the emergency cardiologists, surgeons, nurses, office staff...it goes on and on.

All is fine now and most likely we will continue to follow up with the second surgeon (including the second OHS we know hubby will need somewhere down the road, provided he's still doing it), but I just felt completely interrogated.

And the thing about the local cardiologist, he saw how pale hubby was and sent us for blood work and an EKG. That's it. He mentioned an echo, but never did anything with it. Just said he'd see us back in a month and left it at that. Now I'm not so darn sure I want to take hubby back to the local cardiologist at all. I hate to alienate someone who knows something just in case, but it's not like he was there for this emergency anyway. :rolleyes:

Also, the surgeon who did the emergency surgery stated hubby was lucky his heart had been used to working so hard to push blood through his body with that bad valve. He doesn't think he'd have made it as long as he did. But, that probably worked against him being diagnosed/looked at further earlier as it didn't flag anything in his EKG?

He is now on ibuprofen and just had another echo and all looks well. I am getting very schooled in what to look for.

And he's FINALLY able to sleep in our bed and is getting back on the recovery track.

I am indeed hoping to have some vacation days left to enjoy a weekend away or something after this is all done. If nothing else, I'm seriously looking forward to our anniversary vacation in St. Lucia in 2014, and as soon as I know he's in the clear, there's a bottle of rum from our last vacation that has my name on it.

The Sky Is Falling....The Sky Is Falling....

Haha. One of the nurses told us, "No more reading him that book 'Chicken Little'!" They really were great.
 
And now an infection of the incision from the surgery to fix the pericardial effusion. This appears to have begun as a result.of an echo done at our local hospital a week ago as the red discoloration of skin is in the exact spots the tech touched with the.ultrasound wand. Ugh.

But a shot of antibiotics and an additional 10 day course (now 2 days in) and its receeding.
 
And now an infection of the incision from the surgery to fix the pericardial effusion. This appears to have begun as a result.of an echo done at our local hospital a week ago as the red discoloration of skin is in the exact spots the tech touched with the.ultrasound wand. Ugh.

But a shot of antibiotics and an additional 10 day course (now 2 days in) and its receeding.

Some people have to wade through a field of crap before they get to the other side.....wishing you smoother sailing :)
 

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