This just came in from Nicole after a very, very, very, very complex heart valve surgery.<\/p>\n
Adam,<\/p>\n
My husband, Jason, and I recently purchased your book to get a new perspective on our experience. I am five weeks post mitral valve repair, tricuspid valve repair, pulmonary valve replacement and a \u201cmaze-type\u201d procedure. Unfortunately, my surgery was complicated by the need for a pacemaker approximately 3 weeks ago. This was not my heart first surgery as I had an atrial septal repair some 25 years prior (I am 28 years old now).<\/p>\n
In reading your book, I had some additional questions that maybe you could answer:<\/p>\n
1) How long were you actually in pain for? I know you mentioned that 7 weeks out you were still taking vicodin and then you started the cardio rehab. After 5 weeks, I still take 3 Percocets a day and still am in pain.<\/p>\n
2) When were you able to resume driving? My doctors had originally told me 6 weeks but I am still in a lot of pain when I turn my head so I couldn\u2019t imagine being able to manipulate a car in any sort of a safe manner.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I am beginning to realize that a lot of what my doctors had told me seem to be a rushed recovery, and my body is taking longer to get there. Anyway, any other information you could think of that might be helpful, please let me know.<\/p>\n
Thanks for your time!<\/p>\n
Sincerely,<\/p>\n
Nicole<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Hi Nicole,<\/p>\n
Nice to meet you. And, thanks for sharing your story with me. (I have to admit, you are the first patient I have spoken with that had a triple heart valve surgery operation.)<\/p>\n
You raise many interesting points specific to heart surgery recovery in your email.<\/p>\n
First, you say, “I am beginning to realize that a lot of what my doctors had told me seem to be a rushed recovery<\/em>, and my body is taking longer to get there.”<\/p>\n So you know, I experienced that same exact feeling. In fact, that is one of the key reasons I wrote the book… To help patients and caregivers expect the unexpected. I also wrote it to help medical professionals better understand what patients experience as they progress through this challenging, life-altering event.<\/p>\n As for your questions, here are some thoughts for you:<\/p>\n QUESTION 1: “How long were you actually in pain for? I know you mentioned that 7 weeks out you were still taking vicodin and you started the cardio rehab. After 5 weeks, I still take 3 Percocets a day and still am in pain.”<\/p>\n Like you, I had significant pain in my incision for about three\u00a0months after surgery. That said, I also continued my use of pain killers for a good period of time after surgery (~10 weeks). So you know, my incision still hurts every once in a while – especially when I travel abroad. I carry pain killers with me just in case I need some relief. I know that I am fully healed. But, at times, my incision can become irritated when I am “on-the-go” carrying luggage and briefcases throughout Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n QUESTION 2: “When were you able to resume driving? My doctors had originally told me 6 weeks but I am still in a lot of pain when I turn my head so I couldn’t imagine being able to manipulate a car in any sort of a safe manner.” You just brought back an incredible memory – my first drive. It was around 8 weeks after surgery. I was told I could drive after 3 weeks but there was no way I was going to put myself and\/or others at risk.<\/p>\n Anyways, that first drive after heart surgery<\/a> was quite horrible. I was with my mom. I drove to the beach for a walk. Even though I had last drove a car 57 days earlier, it was a completely, foreign experience. The car felt like it weighed 17,000 pounds. Needless to say, there was a good amount of pain that accompanied this process. After the drive home, I felt great that I had the courage to drive again. But, at the same time, I laid down immediately and took a nap. At that point, I learned something that my surgeon, Doctor Vaughn Starnes, MD, would later echo. There is some “Gain From Pain” in heart surgery recovery<\/a>. I imagine you are experiencing this in cardiac rehab. Re-animating your chest is painful but, please know, in the long run it will get better.<\/p>\n Personally, cardiac rehab was my saving grace. I felt better and stronger after every session. Take it slow but be committed to the exercises. And, I highly encourage you to stretch often. For me, stretching was key to getting my chest bones and muscles re-aligned. Your body is such an amazing vehicle for this life.<\/p>\n I hope that helps!<\/p>\n Keep on tickin!
\nAdam<\/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-412","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\/412","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=412"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/412\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.heart-valve-surgery.com\/heart-surgery-blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}