it's been three months since my last open heart surgery and here's what the recovery was like
recovery was off to a great start i was weak but i was able to do what i needed i had groceries
delivered and i could kick them across the floor on the skateboard i was able to cook for myself
i was able to do laundry again by pushing a laundry basket across the floor with the
clothes in it as far as walking baron i had to be really careful that he wouldn't pull
in my arm and tear my chest so i had to put the leash around my waist and that allowed me to walk
him and not worry so much about him tearing the chest yeah i know shorts flip-flops and a parka
it was great after a few days to see normal sinus rhythm on the ekg
first day waking up with laying flat instead of kind of propped up against the wall it's progress
i was able to start doing a little bit of stretching just trying to get the muscles loosened
up after sitting and laying around so much balance was still a little bit lacking i was eating foods
i wouldn't normally eat but not knowing what my appetite would be like i'd prepared with foods
that just might sound good that i wouldn't even normally keep in the house i need to make sure
i was getting calories and protein and everything in and probably a lot more sugar than i needed i
was able to do dishes and clean the sinks i had a fully stocked pantry of soup and snacks and again
a lot of stuff i wouldn't normally have as well as fully stocked on dog food i was having a lot
of issue with a dry throat causing a cough which hurts like hell with a broken sternum so i found
a couple of humidifiers and kicked up the water intake i had my pill box and meds all organized
i was happy that i was able to use my normal step over shower as i thought i'd have to use
the walk-in with the bench but i could shower normally baron got pretty bored with me just
sitting around all the time every morning i'd use all the various devices that i have
for monitoring my health stats and documenting those so i can keep track of everything and look
for anything going sideways you always have to remember to stand up with your legs not push
yourself up when your chest is in this condition and if you do cough which hurts like hell to
make sure to hold something over your sternum to stabilize it i'm on caffeine restriction yet so
i'm going to drink decaf coffee which seems about as pointless as non-alcoholic beer
when you get your chest split open you stop asking questions and just kind of do what they tell you
i was finally able to lean down with this chest and be able to tie my shoes to wear something
besides flip-flops as i finish the snacky carb sugary foods i just throw them away and not
replace them i started moving to a more healthy breakfast like the eggs and sausage i still kept
some potatoes in my diet for a while just to keep it a little bit balanced as i weaned off the carbs
six weeks since surgery the hair is kind of growing back and the incision is healing up
pretty well overall got my little scabs down there too my heart rhythm had been doing really well
except for 48 hours ago it went haywire it's been in tachycardia which means my heart hasn't dropped
below 120 beats a minute for 48 hours now they think it looks like afib so they're gonna try
to see if they can get me in tomorrow maybe to do a cardioversion where they basically shock
you from the front and back to see if they can reset the rhythm and get it right i'm all for
going double speed on a motorcycle not with the heart it's been 24 hours since the cardioversion
my heart rate is still down 70 to 80 range it's still good oxygen levels that means the rhythm
is good my chest feels good doesn't feel a lot of timing anymore when your heart is actually out of
rhythm it's like having a misfiring cylinder and an engine and the whole thing shakes
this is the shot i take to fast acting thin my blood after doing the cardioversion the other day
you'll be jealous of how much fat i've gained over recovery period but
it's actually helpful because i have to go directly into the stomach so the extra
fat will give me a little bit more distance i guess got to go directly in
squeeze it fast and all the way down until it retracts the needle and pull back up
even though the needle is not exposed i still have my old biohazard needle disposal deal from when
i was doing the tb 500 shots after stem cells so i'll just put them in there so we could go today
and i went in for a cardioversion it took the heart was in good rhythm i did nothing but lay
around watching movies just trying to let the heart get you know in the mode and healed and
everything and the proper rhythm this past tuesday just taking a nap it went back into tacky party so
i've been watching it it's been in tachycardia for four hours that night it looked like i had a good
night's sleep for a change and for four hours it seemed to go back into normal otherwise it's
been intact cardio since yesterday afternoon later in the day i finally was able to get an
appointment confirmed to do another cardioversion today to try to reset it to the good rhythm
within a couple hours of getting the confirmation on the appointment yesterday last evening i'm like
hmm park feels better checked with my cardiomobile and it was back in normal sinus rhythm so that's a
really good sign that it went back into normal by itself it was in normal all night good heart rate
and it was normal again this morning so i called the hospital and canceled the
cardioversion for today because you can't reset something that isn't really broke
what a stressful couple weeks at a time where your heart really doesn't need the stress the heart
rhythm continues to create challenges this being the kind of fourth week of rhythm issues in a row
this time it started a week ago today so last sunday morning and it basically persisted
longer than it had the last couple times so on wednesday i started a new med at double dose
and by 11 o'clock that night it got the rhythm back to normal
so i continued to double those thursday on friday i was supposed to go in for another cardioversion
if i needed it but because the med fixed it i was able to cancel that cardioversion this morning
sunday i woke up and i was actually in possible afib and then 15 minutes later my heart rate just
dropped 10 points and i was back in normal it kind of looks like i'm gonna be on this med for a while
and after the 12 week recovery period is over at some point i'm going to have to come off the med
and then either the heart is going to be happy with its rhythm or it's still going to be a mess
and i'll probably have to have another ablation a couple wins this weekend i was able to mow on
for the first time since surgery which i don't really like but i guess it's at least progress
and it took a lot out of me i did it in two halves the morning and then the night just to try to
suffer and give a little rest in between i was able to take baron to burning lake this morning
and i'm nowhere near well enough to be able to carry that sup down to the lake and go out on
it but at least i was able to get him out to a park and let him play in the water a little bit
it's been a month of the heart rhythm being all over the place it goes back and forth between
120 beats a minute and normal sinus it's popped in and out of afib it'll be in a good for a few days
it hasn't been more than a week before it's changed this whole period
so they put me on of the best medication available for heart rhythm i'm taking double dosage and even
that's not doing it anymore usually it goes in sinus at night or when i'm laying real still
and anytime i try to get up and move it goes into tachycardia and it's over 110 20 beats a minute
so since medication is not doing it today is 11 weeks since the surgery so next week will be 12
weeks that's the theoretical healing recovery time for the actual surgery inside which means
the healing part should be done so they can go in and do an ablation where they burn out parts
of the heart that are causing shorts or errors in the circuit rhythm problem and they scheduled that
ablation for a week from tomorrow so next tuesday and hopefully that ablation fixes it they'll go
in through the femoral up into the heart measure the electrical waves or whatever and then do the
burning of the bad spots in the heart my heart is like frankenstein so as they stitch it all back
together with these various porcine tissue and my own tissue as it heals it's going to form a
lot of scar tissue and instead of that nice fresh native heart tissue doing all the things it should
now go to the scar tissue and that makes it hard for the electrical signals to travel
properly and that's why i'm having to go in and have an ablation and i [ __ ] hope like
hell this fixes it and then two weeks of recovery after that i can get back to living got the ekg
monitor out getting ready for checkout and we got a bleeder nice benefit of uh blood thinners
yeah good thing i left double food and water out in the door open main thing since i had to stay
overnight just got back from the hospital i went in yesterday for the ablation which is normally
in and out in five six hours um the rhythm looked a little bit sketchy when they actually
got into the heart and this morning when they checked ekg it was a nice normal heart wave
still a couple abnormalities like a one block or something like that which
it's not terrible and it'll get better as i heal from this whole thing they let me go i'm
off two meds and i'm one other one so it looks like for the first time in about three months
i am quote unquote normal or as good as my heart's going to get so a little bit more healing time
let me imagine your heart's beating 120 beats a minute for days on end and half the time of this
month even sleeping it never got a rest so the heart muscle was actually weak and not pumping as
hard as it should in that chamber so now that the rhythm is set it should actually come back to a
normal strength i'll follow up with an echo later and let the doctors just see what my ejection
fraction and all that is hopefully this is it as long as everything stays stable in a couple weeks
i can go back to the gym and swimming and starting to find my new normal uh and start l-i-v-i-n
so nice to see 60 beats per minute resting heart rate as opposed to 120 like it's been
for the last month today is the first day of the rest of my life feeling like the terminator
after getting out of the hospital getting fixed yesterday start it by taking this guy for a walk
getting both of us out to stretch our legs take my health stats
measurements for everything like a healthy yummy breakfast here for a
good time not a long time and just going to make every day from now on matter
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