this is my first week and a half or so after open heart surgery for valve replacement
and how it compares to the same surgery i had about 13 years ago
that monday march 7th was day zero and that was the day i had the actual surgery so i had to be
in the hospital at 5 00 a.m surgery was at seven estimated six hours or so
and my first level of conscious memory was sometime that evening
i remember waking up kind of panicking because i couldn't breathe everybody's saying just calm down
breathe easy you'll be fine by wednesday day two i was already walking 280 feet
in a consistent walk i did have some afternoon vomiting that i attributed to the opiates that
i'd been taking i had the push button dilated that i was using and i started developing a pretty
bad cough about this time so i used the push button pain med once more that night before bed
by thursday day three i was able to walk 330 feet i'd completely stopped using the dull outed
and that night before bed was the last night of having oxygen just for sleeping and i had one
oxy pill only before bed to help me sleep that day they also took the catheter out and the neck
iv out by friday day four i walked 555 feet um instead of just picking up my food i was able to
eat full meals by this point already that early it's already hard to sleep through the night in
a hospital with devices buzzing at you you know people are waking you up to check your vitals
to draw blood for lab work and the cough is what was really making it tough for me
especially because i'd already stopped the pain meds so i was taking a bit of a gamble that the
pain wouldn't get so bad that i'd have to revert back to taking them and it really wasn't that bad
it was only when i'd coughed and i'd feel it but the ability to get off those opiates fast
as possible means you can start eating better you feel better your body just works better
and that was my first night without opiates and even though i was off of them
there is a bit of a withdrawal to say the least on these because they are a
physically addicting drug and the biggest difference is what you see in front of you
versus when you shut your eyes in those images is very different so it's very hard to sleep
when every time you close your eyes you see a bunch of weird stuff that's not really there
and what i found myself doing is grabbing onto
the bed rail to try to anchor myself because in my mind at the time i thought okay this will help
sort of lock me in where i'm not floating in space i'm at least grounded this way to try to help
settle my mind so i can get some sleep that night i borrowed the nurse's phone
called back home to my sister and was able to talk on the phone for the first time
even though as you can tell my breathing and speaking is still very tough that day they also
took the chest tubes out of me the next monday day seven they moved me from the icu to the general
cardiac care floor i was able to take my first shower standing up by myself balancing myself
during the week so that felt awesome just to get clean again and that next thursday day 10 i was
released from the hospital that evening and was able to ride home in the hospital shut up
now if you compare back to 13 years ago i actually had two surgeries that week i
had first one the valve repair and then four days later that gave out and i had a valid replacement
so we're going to use that valve replacement day which was november 9th of that year
as our baseline so that we're comparing valve replacement recovery times
but i just want to make sure you understand there was an earlier surgery
that's part of why i had a lot more complications that first time now this time around i've been
living healthier as far as getting decent sleep and managing my stress and not drinking as much
and you know much more regimented with my workouts and everything but i'm also 13 years older
than last time and as we know whether it's a wreck a workout or a hangover 13 years
makes a big difference in recovery time the other advantage is that i kind of knew what to look for
and what to think about and be aware of but in the last couple years my heart
has also been through a couple ablations couple cardioversions and a pfl closure so there's been
a lot more trauma to my heart in the last couple years as well including of course the original
surgeries 13 years ago so the heart now although better healthy habits is a lot more worn out
than it was the first time for both cases my first conscious moment was in icu
very late the night of the surgery now the first time they pulled out my chest tubes catheter
and neck iv all the day after the surgery versus this time the chest tubes came out on day four and
the catheter and neck iv came out on day three i was also out of icu day one the first time
versus day seven this time now even though i spent 17 total days in the hospital
last time it was 12 days after the valve replacement surgery versus 10 days this time
and the only reason it actually was even that long is because the rhythm just wasn't quite right yet
both cases i started a pretty bad cough around day three to four and that's just
something that i tend to have issues with the first time i was on oxygen all through
the hospital and actually had to take oxygen home or to my sisters with me afterwards so i didn't
get off oxygen until around day 20 the first time versus day four this time that's a huge difference
and at that day 20 or so i wasn't able to walk any more than just around my sister's house
versus being able to go walk a thousand feet or whatever some fraction of a mile like i could now
so my activity level is much better as well which makes sense knowing that my body's being able to
generate enough oxygen itself to me one of the biggest things like i mentioned earlier is the
narcotics i wasn't off oxy you know narcotics any of the pain meds until day 28 before the first
time versus day four this time that's a huge difference and as a result by day 31 last time
i was still picking at food barely you know i still wasn't eating a full meal and i'd lost
about 40 pounds in that period of time this time by day four i was eating a full meal that's a huge
difference and the fact that i'm not losing as much weight and able to maintain muscle mass and
everything else just makes me overall more healthy the first time i was able to talk on a phone which
you wouldn't think talking is that difficult but when you're just struggling to get air in and out
talking is hard and i wasn't able to talk on the phone until about day 30 the first time versus day
four this time this just kind of gives you an idea what this first week and a half looks like after
open heart surgery and interesting to me is the differences from the first round 13 years ago
versus now and there's a lot of variables obviously that go in that but overall as difficult
as this recovery is it is so much easier than last time i'm glad i've been through this once because
had i not i would just think how unpleasant this recovery is but having had that for a comparison
makes me really appreciate how fast and healthy and
you know quickly this whole recovery is going compared to that first time
subscribe to my youtube channel below and let's celebrate turning fuel and air into adrenaline