Chris's Journal

Saw Dr Stone. Very nice and compassionate doctor. He showed me the nodule, which is on my right lung, not were the cyst is. It\'s about 6mm. Dr Stone told me that he doesn\'t think it\'s cancerous. He told me that it looks more like an infection, which is GREAT NEWS. I have a follow up CT in March to see if it changes. He expects it to be gone by then. He also showed me the CT for my sternum. As I said in a past journal I have a gap between the top of the sternum bone. It\'s about an inch and a half. He told me that the wire broke at this location. The rest is filling in and getting stronger. He told me though that he\'d like me to wait until February before going back to doing my full job duties to allow it to strengthen a little more. He still has me on limited movement with my upper body. He has given me the ok to lift no more than 20 pounds with my arms. Overall I\'m starting to see a light at the end of my tunnel. I can\'t wait until I get back to doing my normal activities. Oh by the way my wife, Tammy, was with me at Dr Stone\'s office. He told her (jokingly) that I\'m not to do any laundry either :). I am still working with my electrophysiologist to take care of my dizziness, heart palpations and rapid heart rate. I feel great though and know the electrophysiologist will take care of these problems. Next step for this is an echo tomorrow and a table tilt next week. Oh I wanted to mention. I moved up my exercise porgram from walking to running, well actually jogging, sort of. Since I can\'t swing my arms I put them in my pants pockets. Try this if you ever think your running is easy. I found that it is a lot harder and man does it give you a work out. I ran for 30 minutes like this, with some walks in between.

Today\'s the day I meet with Dr Stone to see for myself the CT and how well my sternum has progressed. I also hope to find out when I will be able to return to my normal activities and start using my arms again and do my full job at work. I also will be finding out more about the nodule he found on my lung. I have been worried the last few weeks since he told me. I did research on this on the internet and there are so many different opinions as to what it might be. Its amazing how much your mind thinks when your are told somethng like this. All the head games you give yourself. Please keep me in your prayers for this. Even though I am worried I am trying to be confident it is nothing serious.

YEAH!, I heard from Dr Stone my second opinion surgeon. He told me my sternum is healing great and that I don\'t need surgery to put plates in. He told me that I could probably return to full time work the first week in January. I\'m looking forward to it. I think the wrap the nurses at cardic rehab told me to try is working. The AWE news is the CT showed a nodule on my lung he is concerned about, AS AM I. Man if it\'s not one thing or another. I was fine until I turned 46 then everything seems to be going down hill. Dr Stone told me that it was not on my last CT. What can appear so fast? I have an appointment to see him in two weeks so he can show me. He wants me to have another CT in four to five months. Why so long? Shouldn\'t something be done now? I know the past CT reports show that there is a cyst on my liver. I asked Dr Stone if this was it and he told me that it was on my lung. He asked if I ever smoked, which I did when I was teen and that was very little. He also asked If I had pnemonia or an infection recently. I don\'t think I had pnemonia but I saw a doctor about a month ago because I thought I had a sinus infection. The doc told me I had a slight sinus infection but it was mostly allergies. I did cough alot. That doc put me on Antibodies. I wonder if this was what Dr Stone saw, after all the CT was about 3 and a half weeks after I had the sinus infection/allergies. I\'ll continue to keep posting as things come in. In the mean time please keep me in your prayers.

I saw my electrophysiologist today. He told me my heart is doing great and that my blackouts, dizzyness and palpations are not being caused by my heart. He told me the cause may be Vasovagal. He has me scheduled for a Echo and Tilt Table test in a few weeks to see. In the meantime he told me to start drinkning Gatoraide and having more salt.

I saw my second (or is third, I can\'t keep track) opinion today. I brought my CT with me. He was a really nice doctor.Very caring. Very thorough. He could feel the movement in my chest. He told me that my sternum doesn\'t look that bad but there is still a gap. He compared it to the last couple CT\'s that I brought along and he told me it looks like it is getting better, He told me that I may be just a slow healer. He told me that I may have to consider surgery to put plates in in order to speed up the healing process and get back to anormal life. The alternative is to wait to heal, which no time estimate could be given. So now what do I do? Maybe I\'ll see how it is in December then make a decision. Boy am I a procrastinator or what? Like I\'ve said though I don\'t want surgery. I\'ll have to see what is happening with my life in December.

Sorry for the delay, I had my chest CT yesterday to see how my sternum is healing. I\'m still waiting for the call from the ordering surgeon. I\'ll post when I know what is going on. I went to see another surgeon, different for the surgeon who ordered the CT, today, which I had an appointment for. I brought a copy of my chest CT from yesterday so he can look at it. I was waiting for about 15 minutes when the nurse came to me and told me that there were complications with the surgery he was doing and he will be a couple more hours in surgery. They asked if I wanted to wait. Part of me wanted to because I am so anxious in knowing what will happen next with me. Part of me didn\'t want to know because I dread going in for more surgery. I am trying to be optomistic but it is hard. I have so many walls that keep coming up. Also the fact that this surgeon was dealing with complications during his surgery also scared me. I didn\'t want to give up on this surgeon though. I had heard he is really good and others really like him. I rescheduled my appointment for tomorrow afternoon. The moral of the story I learned today is that even good surgeons run into complications.

I\'m 46 years old and am 5 months out from mitral valve replacement. I wish I had learned of this site prior to my surgery, but I just found out about it through my friend who just had surgery. From the time of my surgery things haven\'t gone well. Please read my story as what has been happening. It is to long for this journal. I am hoping to meet others that have experienced or is experiencing anything similar to what I have been going through to give me guidance. In brief. I was suppose to have a repair and it went wrong and turned into a replacment valve. I am currently off my meds but having palpations. My sternum still had a 5mm gap between both halves and I have dehiscence going on. I am scheduled for another CT scan on Mon 10/17/11 and if there still is no improvement I am looking at going back into surgery to get plates put in. My sternum is clicking and popping constantly. I am also suffering memory loss, spams in the left eye, dizzyness and black outs. I am going to the electrophysiologist on Wed 10/19/11 to try and correct these problems. That\'s all for now until I have my CT results.