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.