Day 18 - Cardiology appointment

Today I had an appointment with the cardiologist and I actually met with the nurse practitioner and not the doctor. This seems to be a trend these days.

I asked if I could wear compression socks because my legs are definitely swelling up when I’m sitting a lot during the day. She said OK. 

I am definitely feeling better, my chest is not as painful, but I am becoming more aware that my feeling is coming back. I do have very bad pain in my middle back on the left side. I tried some Biofreeze which helped for a bit, but then slept on a heating pad, and that seems to fix it. 

I am thinking it might be from doing too much or overexerting myself. I also asked the cardiologist to do a hemoglobin test and a hemoglobin is 8.7 which is up from when I left the hospital but not by much. I told the doctor I’m going to go back to iron twice a day and I’m also making an appointment with the hematologist.

I can't afford to get fatigued from the anemia while I'm trying to heal from the CABG!

So this was my second day in a row out of the house and walking longer distances to the doctor's office, Which is right across the elevator lobby from the surgeon's office I went to yesterday. Felt good to walk but it is tiring. 

Day 17 - Follow up with surgeons

Today was my first trip out of the house. It's winter in Chicago, and I was praying it would not be icy or slick. I carried my bear with me and my husband dropped me off in front of the doctor's office and parked the car. I felt really good being able to walk inside and go the longer distance to the doctor's office. 

I did feel a little tired by the time I got there. But it felt good.

The nurse practitioner saw me. I guess I don't see the actual doctor anymore. She checked the incisions and said they looked great. But she saw a piece of suture left in one of the drain wounds and pulled that out with tweezers. Gross. 

She said it will take a couple of months but it looked good and was healing up. 

I don't need to come back and see the surgical team anymore, but she said to reach out with any questions.

I went home in time to take an afternoon meeting for work! And then I took a nap. 

Day 12

I am feeling more energy but my chest muscles are hurting more. Maybe I’m using arms too much? 

I still have lots of bruising and it still hurts when I cough. I took shower this morning and I am not sure if my incision looks better or not. How can you tell? 

I lost a couple more pounds of water. Took a two-hour nap in basement, it’s hard to get comfortable. Took two five minute walks in the house. 

The physical therapist called and said they will be here next week on January 2 at 10:00 a.m. They are trying to get the insurance approvals and all of that which is hard over the holidays. 

January 2 is also going to be the day I start back to work. I am hoping I have more energy by then. 

I still do not go anywhere without my hugging bear. I am still coughing at times, especially after using the incentive spirometer. Which I moved the target up a bit on today because I am getting better at it.

I weigh 13 pounds less than when I got home, so that is good news. Basically two pounds less than yesterday. It is pretty much the water weight coming off. My legs still look swollen and puffy.

Day 11 - Kinda tired

Today is Day 11 post surgery and I felt more tired today than yesterday. I woke up, got ready for the day, made breakfast, and then had a two hour nap. I was getting excited that every day would be a little better. But today I was just tired and meh.

I headed over to the AHA support group for some advice from my new friends there. They assure me it's normal and that some days will be good ones, and others will be meh ones. 

So I soldier on. 

Day Four. Friday.

The infiltration on my wrist is a big pain. I asked them to move the IV to my left wrist because even having an IV on my right hand makes it hard to use the bathroom (women will understand.) 

They moved it and my wrist felt better.

Today I also got to walk a lap or two around the floor, and physical therapy had me walk down to their special room and go up and down a couple of stairs. I passed with flying colors! 

I am still tired, and I still feel a little weak when standing up.  But I am definitely getting better at getting up and down. 

I got my daily wipe-down bath with the gross body wipes today and was once again glad I have my powder with me to make me feel less damp and more silky. Smells way better than the wipes too.

I think Friday was the day they removed my central line too. This was on the left side of my chest below my shoulder. This is a line that goes directly into my heart. Just like when they removed the drains, they had me hold my breath while they pulled it out.  It didn't hurt, but the length of the line was a lot longer than I expected it to be.  

Now the only things I was still hooked up to are the adhesive leads on my chest for the heart monitor and the IV.  But I have a lot of bandages where things used to be! 

I was still getting iron infusions to raise my hemoglobin, and they also had social services come by to make sure I had a good place to go for recovery. 

I had bad dreams again last night - really freaky weird ones. I blame the oxy but the nurse also told me I have been through a major surgery and sometimes that just happens.

I really am tired of being in the hospital, and cannot wait to go home.

Don't catch COVID or a cold.

One thing they have been clear on is that I have to avoid catching a cold or a cough. I need to keep using the bear - which I do anytime I need to move or have to cough, which is less today than yesterday.

The pressure from a cough is very hard on the sternum and they do not want me catching COVID or RSV or anything at all. I cannot risk breaking the sternum wires or opening the incision. It is 3 days until Christmas and my husband Jim and I are going to hunker down at home by ourselves to avoid catching anything.

I don't know what my sternal wires look like - I saw the Xray but couldn't really make it out. But here is a drawing I found online that shows you sternal wires. 

They took me down to a standing X-ray today instead of taking one in the bed, and it was nice to go traveling around the hospital a bit. 

First day after surgery. Tuesday.

They came in and removed the inflation sleeve on my leg and asked me to stand up next to the bed. I felt a little weak, but more scared about moving around and HOW to get up than anything.

Because your sternum is cut, and is now held together by what my nurse called “piano wires,” they do not want you pushing up with your arms to stand. They help you roll onto your side and then sit up and swing your legs to the floor. I had been practicing this at home because I have a little knee problem right now. And you hug your bear or pillow while you do this. 

The beat it into you - you cannot push yourself up using your arms and you need to keep your arms below shoulder height.

This video was probably one of the more useful ones I found online while I was researching.

I did the roll and they helped me stand, and the hardest part was that I was hooked up to so many tubes and lines, they all need to be moved or shifted by someone. 

So I stood up and it felt good. And they all congratulated me on being strong and doing a good job. 😊

I got back in bed for a bit. And they came in later and asked if I’d like to sit in the chair and I said yes. So they helped me roll onto my side in bed, hug my bear and swing my legs again to get up. 

I sat up in the chair for the next 9 hours. I are breakfast, watched tv, hung out with my bear and my husband, and ate lunch and dinner there. Apparently that was a very good thing because every doctor and nurse and specialist who came to see me kept telling me how great it was to see me 'up in the chair.' 

They also gave me the breathing tool - it's called an incentive spirometer. As a gamer, I loved it. I had to suck in air to raise the puck in the big chamber, while keeping the ball between the little arrows. But it does make you cough a little, and they WANT you to cough. You are trying to cough the junk out of your lungs that settled there in surgery. So I always had my Jimmy bear handy too (named him after my husband.)

Here you see me that morning when my husband showed up around 7:00 a.m. or so, goofy smile, showing off my spirometer and bear. 

Oh - and it turned into a quadruple.

So my husband told me that the surgeon actually fixed a fourth artery when he was in there. He decided to go ahead and do it which took a couple of extra hours. But he told my husband he wanted to do it to get it taken care of since he was already in there. I was a little surprised to hear that, but glad that maybe that prevents me from having to ever do this again. 

Visits from the Docs

During the day the surgeon, anesthesiologist, cardiac fellows, nurses and more all came by to see me. Everyone told me how well I did and how strong I was. I was completely unconscious during surgery so I have no idea what happens in there or what they mean that I’m strong.

The surgeons had told me before that half of CABG surgeries are performed when people come in through the ER with a heart attack or something. I had not had any symptoms and they found my blockages because I came in for something else.  

When they were scheduling my surgery they told me because I was healthy and “low risk” I would have an easier and faster recovery.  I wonder if this is also why people were telling me I was strong? I don’t know. But in hindsight it made me glad I decided to have the surgery BEFORE I got weaker and ended up in the ER. So if you’re on a situation like mine - it’s a smart decision and you can get ahead of major problems by having the surgery when they tell you to. (Versus wait… which I kinda wanted to do.)

So you know, you don't see much of your surgeon. I saw him before surgery and after. Otherwise I saw his NP, one of his fellows or another resident. I guess I should be happy - not seeing him a bunch meant it went well and he could move on to harder cases. LOL!

As you can see from the photo -- I am doing ok.  This is the morning after surgery. 

When you wake up from surgery.

Here is a photo my husband took of me right before surgery, then later that day after surgery after they removed the breathing tube, and then the next morning sitting up in my chair next to the bed.  So in 24 hours I was already sitting up in my chair, and ate breakfast with my new little hugging bear.

I look terrible in the middle photo -- but I don't remember any of that. I did have a helluva time combing my hair. And I had that little silver cap on during surgery. I look like a purple martian! :-D

How the day went.

I went in around 7am and the next thing I remember it was 8:00 p.m. and I was in the cardiac ICU waking up talking to my nurse. She had my husband on her cell phone talking to me, because apparently I had asked her to call him. 

He had left a half hour earlier, and had been sitting with me since 4pm but I didn’t remember any of it. 

My brother and husband had been at the hospital all day and they said when I came back from surgery I was all wrapped and swaddled up like a baby in blankets. They were there when they took the breathing tube out and apparently my voice was hoarse and we were making jokes. They said I sounded like the guy in the Shining and I heard them and said “REDRUM” and everyone laughed. I don’t remember any of this. That is around when the middle photo was taken. So I was joking already by that time.

I also woke up with a teddy bear. 

You will be given a heart pillow or a bear or something that you have to hold against your chest when you cough, or move or anything. This bear was my constant companion for the next month.

They had my husband take my little bag of personal things home with him, so I did not have my cell phone or chap stick etc. the first night. But I was on a lot of pain meds and didn’t need it. 

My left leg was wrapped in ace bandages or something because they had taken my saphenous vein for the grafts. My right leg had an inflatable “sock” on it that inflated every five minutes to prevent any blood clots.

I “slept” that night, but it felt like I woke up every five minutes because I would wake up and look at the clock and only 5 minutes had passed. This went on until 6 or 7 a.m. In hindsight I think I was still loopy from the anesthesia and pain meds, and the noise from the leg inflating was likely “waking me” every five minutes. The nurse was also coming in regularly during the night. I had amazing nurses.

I was not in pain, but I definitely felt some pressure, specifically right below the incision where the drains were. If I moved, it felt a little uncomfortable.  It was not horribly 'painful.'

The nurse also put a pillow behind my one shoulder in the middle of the night so I wasn’t completely on my back, and I preferred the head of the bed elevated a bit. 

I still had a catheter in so I didn’t have to get up to use the bathroom or anything. The drains under the incision also led to a bag on the side of the bed, and the nurses checked those pretty regularly. The drains were draining blood and fluid off of the surgical area. 

Overall it was not a bad experience. I was a little loopy from the anesthesia and pain meds but I was mostly comfortable. And I had my little bear with me to keep me company.