Changes I've Made Since CABG

208 days since my surgery (Almost 7 months)

I have one month left of my virtual Cardiac Rehab, and I want to celebrate some of the positive changes I've made with the help of my doctors, my husband, my physical therapists, and my nutritionist. 

I'm eating more fish.

This is a very positive change for me, and Jim and I are now eating tilapia and grouper at least once a week, and some tuna as well. I'm actually shocked at how fast and easy it is to cook fish, and this past week my nutritionist changed my life when she told me I can actually just cook it from frozen. So in 15 minutes we can have dinner on the table. She said fish has omega-3s that are great for your heart health and we should eat 2 servings a week. She said fatty fish like salmon and tuna are especially good for you.

Salmon has never been a favorite of mine, so she recommended we try swordfish.  I'll let you know how that goes.

I'm doing my cardiac rehab.

This involves exercise, yes, but also meeting with my nutritionist and also watching a lot of content about behavior, how to think differently, stress management, etc. I am nor perfect, and I give myself maybe a C+ on this, but I am also a very hard grader.  

I really like the VHPGO virtual cardiac rehab that RUSH booked me up with, and the live physical therapist and nutritionist appointments I do via the computer. I talked about this before, it is a great platform. I also found Cardiac Rehab videos online and subscribed to their content. I like getting their videos and content in my inbox because they have great content and it reminds me to stay on track. I will probably keep connecting with their content when my virtual rehab ends in a month.

I am drinking more water.

Yes, we know we need to do this. But I am actually doing it. I have planned my day to ensure that I have a water bottle where I need it, when I need it. Talking with my nutritonist, I admitted that I am a pro at using work as an excuse for why I don't do what I need to do. So she gave me some accountability tricks and now I am a hydrating pro.

I am doing Pilates, yoga and cardio.

I was already doing some cardio with my Meta Quest 2 (Oculus) and the Supernatural and Beat Saber apps. And in November I upgraded to an Amazfit Balance smart watch to better monitor my heart rate, HRV, etc. (Yes, I love tech and VR and all of that stuff.) But thanks to my cardiac rehab I have a plan with heart rate goals, I understand why and when I want to increase my heart rate, where to aim on the BORG scale and so much more. So now the tech I love is a lot more useful to me. 

I also understand the importance of strength training and mobility training. The VHPGO has a range of online classes on demand, and I have done some pilates and yoga classes on the mat, and I can absolutely feel the difference in my body. 

I'm being more purposeful.

It is so easy to give in to the urgent and immediate needs of work, friends and family every day. But it is far more important to ensure that I am doing what I need to do to recover and become a stronger, healthier human. That means making purposeful changes, and purposeful decisions every day. I am nowhere near perfect, but I am planning small things into every day that purposefully get me closer to my goals, From planning trips to the kitchen for a water refill (which at my work involves a several minute walk to get my bones moving) to forcing tilapia onto my dinner menu rotation. It also means saying "no" to things if I already have a workout planned that afternoon, or know I need to spend time doing something else that moves me closer to my goals. 

This week will mark 7 months since my surgery, and about 8 months since I found out I even needed surgery. I am better now than I was then. But I want to keep getting better. For me, better means stronger.

Scar update 6 months later

205 days since my surgery (6.5 months)

Well, I saw the dermatologist today to have him look at my scar.  He said "it's looking great!" Which I was so glad to hear, because I look at it and think that it looks too red and that it is 'widening' over time. When I got a little emotional telling him I had to get all new clothes and can't wear any of my pretty things anymore, he assured me that I will be wearing them again! 

Before he came into the room his assistant told me that anywhere on the body where there is tension a scar can stretch and widen. Certainly the sternum is an area -- for women -- that has tension on it. Men don't typically have breasts that can pull on the skin.  When lying on your back (they make you sleep on your back for 2-3 months after surgery) the weight of your breasts, especially if you have larger breasts like me, pulls the skin on the center of your sternum quite a bit.  This is never a problem until you have a 6-8" scar between the middle of your breasts.

I wore a bra 24 hours a day for the first 3 months, and I was so glad to not have to wear it anymore, but I am now thinking maybe I should have worn it longer because I DO have larger breasts. So you may want to discuss that with your doctor ahead of time if you have large breasts. 

The surgeon's office was pretty non-chalant about it before surgery, and the NP there told me that with "my skin" I would probably barely notice any scar there in a year or two. We shall see if she is right.

My dermatologist happens to be the best derm in the world. Maybe everyone thinks theirs is the best, but mine really is. :-D  He told me that the silicone scar tape is great and I can wear it all the time if I want, and it should help.  He also said I can use the tape or the gel, and that some people find silicone gel easier to use. I might look into that. The tape package said to wear it 12-22 hours, but he said just take it off before bathing and then put it back on. 

I secretly believe that wearing the tape to bed might help the scar widen less, but that is complete fantasy on my part to be sure. 

It is also next to impossible to find photos of a sternotomy scar healing over time. I have Googled everywhere and you can see new scars and old scars. So I am going to keep sharing my scar over time so anyone else out there who needs to know can hopefully see this and get some helpful info. Hopefully my pain can be your gain! :-D 


**WARNING - SCAR PHOTO BELOW. STOP HERE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO SEE A SCAR.**

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You can see what I mean by it looks like it "widened" and there is a little lumpiness at the top, which the dermatologist said we can "fix" if it is still there in a year. That is where the suture knot was, and he told me sometimes they have to remove those suture knots a year after surgery. He even mentioned having to "dig in to find them" or something, which sounded gross. So I am glad mine came out, even though at the time it freaked me out a bit.

He thought it looked great -- which was surprising to me. I really thought it looked awful. But that is why we have dermatologists.

You can see at the bottom my two drain scars. And the impressions on my skin there are from my bra. The bra band hits right where the drain scars are so you can see why it was such an issue when they were healing. Ugh, what a memory that triggered. LOL!

I wonder if silicone scar tape would make those drain scars go away? Hmm I might try that.

Here is a pic of three stages of scar progression for reference: (Please note the middle photo was taken at a different distance which is why you don't see the drain scars at the bottom.)

At 4 months the top of the incision still had a little hump there, which absolutely went away like they said it would.  But now I do (sometimes) have that little lump of skin at the top.  It seems to go away after wearing the silicone scar tape overnight, but then appears again by the end of the day. I am guessing it is related to laying in bed versus being upright all day. Who knows.