{"id":394,"date":"2008-04-27T10:36:50","date_gmt":"2008-04-27T15:36:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/04\/27\/allergic-reaction-hospital-infection-adhesives\/"},"modified":"2019-02-26T22:34:21","modified_gmt":"2019-02-27T03:34:21","slug":"allergic-reaction-hospital-infection-adhesives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/2008\/04\/27\/allergic-reaction-hospital-infection-adhesives\/","title":{"rendered":"After Allergic Reaction, Jeff’s Heart Surgery Recovery Is Filled With Walks"},"content":{"rendered":"

Over the past few weeks, I have received two emails from heart surgery patients which experienced interesting, allergic reactions while in the hospital during their valve replacement surgeries<\/a>. As you will read below, Jeff had an allergic reaction specific to the adhesives used in the surgical patches.<\/p>\n

Here is Jeff\u2019s account of the situation:<\/p>\n

Hi Adam,<\/p>\n

Thanks for writing. I did get a lot of useful support and information from you book, and do appreciate your concerns and interest.<\/p>\n

  <\/p>\n

\n
\"Jeff<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

  <\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

I was admitted to Brigham & Women’s Hospital on February 27th, for a heart catheterization. The cardiac catheterization<\/a> showed that only one coronary artery was about 20% blocked, so the aortic valve replacement surgery on Februrary 28th was done as a minimally invasive procedure. This meant that my incision was only about three and a half inches (shown below).<\/p>\n

My anesthesiologist, Dr. Shine Sun is the BEST!! Dr. Lawrence Cohn, my surgeon is absolutely great as well. In fact, Brigham & Women’s and all the people who cared for me are the BEST! I had a very good time – all-in-all. And the food was excellent! I put on about nine pounds (which I have since lost).<\/p>\n

I guess that my being fit had lots to do with a good recovery. I was discharged me on Monday, March 3rd. Soon thereafter I stopped any pain pills, as that is a non-issue.<\/p>\n

I guess the main problem I have had is that I had some type of allergic reaction to the adhesives they used in the patches, the stickies, and the drape they covered my front with during the surgery. As a result I ITCH! LOL!!!<\/p>\n

My cardiologist suggested I try Benadryl for the itching, which helped a lot, as did Badger Healing Balm. This product is made in New Hampshire and is excellent all natural balm, that really helps.<\/p>\n

I am trying to just use the Badger Balm now, and so far that seems to be enough.<\/p>\n

My recovery is proceeding well. The visiting nurse who comes twice a week is pleased, and I feel good. I walk on our walking machine – not a treadmill, in our living room every day for a half hour, and get out to walk outdoors for about 20 to 25 minutes when the weather permits.<\/p>\n

I am going to get into cardiac rehabilitation program<\/a> when the time is right, and am looking forward to that. I am NOT missing all the heart valve symptoms I had before the surgery!<\/p>\n

By the way, my cardiologist called it right. The time was right for my heart valve replacement!<\/p>\n

We changed pillows on our bed in early January, and the new ones really transmit sound. I could really hear my valve getting progressively louder and worse all the time throughout January and February. This was not the usual \u201cLub-Dub”. My aortic valve was progressively getting worse. My surgeon tells me it was very bad!<\/p>\n

I am one lucky guy! My wife Nancy, has been terrific through all this! My sister-in-law, Ann, her daughter Sarah (a recent Nurse YEAHHH!), and, her brother Ben, were also VERY big players in my support team!!!<\/p>\n

Well, I guess I’ve raved on long enough!!<\/p>\n

Take care Adam, and thanks again for your excellent book<\/a>, and all your care and support!<\/p>\n

Jeff<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-394","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-recovery"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=394"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/394\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=394"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=394"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=394"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}