August 26, Sat: From Laurie!
Hi there everyone! It's actually me! Brenda has been doing such a great job that I allowed myself a few days before I even looked at the computer. Katie came in Weds night, did a bunch of errands, but had to leave early this morning because her grandmother was in a serious car accident. She just called me from Ohio and is on the way to the hospital.
So, the questions of the week.... I'm still very tired, doesn't take much before I'm on the couch. I nap and rest a lot, which is why I haven't been able to talk to everyone personally yet. Still quite short of breath with activity, even climbing the stairs. All normal after heart surgery. The multiple areas in my groin and neck that had catheters in them are healing beautifully. The three holes from the chest tubes look pretty nasty, I'm cleaning them and dressing them daily. The sternal incision looks great, except for about an inch at the top that isn't healing as cleanly and will scar. My chest is still pretty sore, although much improved from a week ago. I need to sleep fairly upright, so have a wedge plus pillows. Still only sleeping a couple hours at a time, any movement causes enough pain to wake me and getting in and out of bed is no picnic. Listened to my lungs this morning, and I suspect there is a pleural effusion in the right base, which is also pretty normal.
My biggest problem has become the chest wall hernia. Dr. Cohn warned me the night before surgery that he didn't think he'd be able to fix with everything else going on, and he was right. The adhesions (scar tissue) from the first surgery were much worse than he expected. There was a large area of the pericardial sack that had been removed, and both the right and left lung were stuck onto my heart. By the time he got through that, fixed the valve, etc, he didn't want to put any further strain on my heart by having me under anesthesia for longer, so had to close. (Five hour surgery, 90 mins on bypass--much improved from the ten hour surgery with 6 hours on bypass before!) Clearly he made the right decision, because then my BP went wacky, which was why I was in CCU for longer. But, since the opening between the ribs was already there (right side, from the first surgery, between 4 and 5), cutting open the sternum opened up a third side. It is normal to cough after being intubated and clearing the lungs. Unfortunately, this has caused the hernia to become much larger in the past few days. It is now visible when I cough, and about the size of a baseball as my lung comes through the opening in my chest wall. It hurts, restricts my right arm movement, affects my ability to even bend over. I will call my cardiologist down here Monday am and go from there.
Again, thank you to all who are concerned about me, praying for me and checking in. While I'm certainly through the roughest part there will be more to come....
Laurie
So, the questions of the week.... I'm still very tired, doesn't take much before I'm on the couch. I nap and rest a lot, which is why I haven't been able to talk to everyone personally yet. Still quite short of breath with activity, even climbing the stairs. All normal after heart surgery. The multiple areas in my groin and neck that had catheters in them are healing beautifully. The three holes from the chest tubes look pretty nasty, I'm cleaning them and dressing them daily. The sternal incision looks great, except for about an inch at the top that isn't healing as cleanly and will scar. My chest is still pretty sore, although much improved from a week ago. I need to sleep fairly upright, so have a wedge plus pillows. Still only sleeping a couple hours at a time, any movement causes enough pain to wake me and getting in and out of bed is no picnic. Listened to my lungs this morning, and I suspect there is a pleural effusion in the right base, which is also pretty normal.
My biggest problem has become the chest wall hernia. Dr. Cohn warned me the night before surgery that he didn't think he'd be able to fix with everything else going on, and he was right. The adhesions (scar tissue) from the first surgery were much worse than he expected. There was a large area of the pericardial sack that had been removed, and both the right and left lung were stuck onto my heart. By the time he got through that, fixed the valve, etc, he didn't want to put any further strain on my heart by having me under anesthesia for longer, so had to close. (Five hour surgery, 90 mins on bypass--much improved from the ten hour surgery with 6 hours on bypass before!) Clearly he made the right decision, because then my BP went wacky, which was why I was in CCU for longer. But, since the opening between the ribs was already there (right side, from the first surgery, between 4 and 5), cutting open the sternum opened up a third side. It is normal to cough after being intubated and clearing the lungs. Unfortunately, this has caused the hernia to become much larger in the past few days. It is now visible when I cough, and about the size of a baseball as my lung comes through the opening in my chest wall. It hurts, restricts my right arm movement, affects my ability to even bend over. I will call my cardiologist down here Monday am and go from there.
Again, thank you to all who are concerned about me, praying for me and checking in. While I'm certainly through the roughest part there will be more to come....
Laurie
posted by Laurie @ 11:23 AM
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