Al's Posts

Had my first glitch on Friday night. Around midnight I awoke with very obvious atrial fibrillation. My heart was pounding and I could very definitely feel the fluttering beats. My blood pressure monitor showed blood pressure to be normal for me, in the range of 125/65. But my heart rate had shot up from its normal ~60 to 135! I'm 200 miles away from my doc, so when I talked to him in the morning he said I was doing too much walking (I was up to about 2 miles in 30 minutes just 10 days after surgery). So I've slowed down and so has my heart. Feeling great, almost no pain. Al

Back home, second day and feeling great. I have such a detailed schedule of events and things to do for my recovery that I've started a spreadsheet for medicines (Lopressor, Tylenal, Lovaza, aspirin and Lipitor), breathing machine use, blood pressure, heart rate, temperature and weight. Also eye drop schedule for my post-cataract surgery. What's remarkable to me about this adventure is that it has been essentially pain free. The only time I feel any pain at all is when I inadvertently do something I'm not supposed to do, like start to get up by pushing with my hands, or raising my arms high overhead. The slight pain is like a quick reminder. As I mentioned earlier, Dr. Luis Castro was my chief surgeon. Several surgeons and physician's assistants from his office saw me several times a day as did Luis. He also emailed with me a few times a day. I asked him why I had no pain. He said it probably was because his practice is to make a truly minimal incision — in my case less than three inches. And when he applies the retractors to spread the chest, he spreads it as little as possible, explaining that the team headed by him and Dr. Guardiani, focus on truly minimal surgery. So, here I am, ready to take on the world. I fully anticipate that I won't need to go into cardiac rehab, but will focus on walking as much as I can (if the snow waits a while) and then, when the docs say go for it, resume weight training. As some of you know, three years ago, following a horrendous motorcycle crash, I dropped 55 pounds or so. Call it a crash diet. This time, no crash, but I've shed about 14 pounds and am down to a somewhat svelte 161. [Turns out I lied. I weigh 167.5 pounds, so I only dropped about 8 pounds. Still feeling great without pain on my 7th day since surgery.] All the numbers are good, I feel great and only bemoan the fact that the daily martini is a relished relic of the past. I don't plan to post to the blog anymore, unless something changes, but will be happy to answer emails to agkildow@comcast.net. Thanks for listening.

Can you believe it? Wednesday they were sticking knives in my chest. Today Judy, our dog Lily and I will drive 4 hours home to Nevada City. Feeling great, only very slight pain in my chest, less than in my butt which has been parked for a week. Thanks for all the good wishes. If anyone wants to talk to me off the blog it's agkildow@comcast.net Al