Cindy's Guestbook

Cindy Williams  Hi Steve, I am good today, but have had to take two trips back to the hospital, last one I came home Thursday night. I have pericarditis, my first trip I left with methylprednisolone, once that was finished the pain came back and after my 2nd ER trip and another overnight they sent me home with a stronger dose and another med. I met with my surgeon today, he said 15% get pericarditis but my % went up due to the bleeding during surgery. My MVR was a success, but my blood did not clot so I was in the operating room for 5 hours, only on the by-pass for an hour. Once I got through that I had to be put on Lasix for 3 days to remove fluids. I was in the best of care as I know a few doctors and nurses at the hospital and my critical care pulmonary Dr. is the dad of my daughters friend. I also have a close friend who runs the life flight department who checked on my twice a day. Having those people there made life so much better for my husband. I think its harder on the family when things go wrong. Anyway, I feel like I've been through so much in 30 days, once I get the pericarditis under control and follow-up with a hematologist to figure out what happened I will be living life with absolutely no heart issues (heart cath was all clear) and all i have to take is a low dose aspirin daily. I saw a hematologist, she tested some blood and no concerns now, need to wait for my blood to settle down and get all these drugs out of my system. lots of details, i appreciate you checking on me :) I tried two times to post 2 weeks ago but my posts were lost in cyber space. btw, my 4" scar starts very low, I'm very happy with that and that i chose the mini-sternotomy.

How are you???

Steve Farthing  Thanks for the update. Sorry to hear about the complications but glad that your family and spouse are there for support. Great that your valve is now repaired and you will soon be past the pericarditis. I am almost 3 months post op and have had no complications. Very lucky I guess.

Cindy Williams  I'm so impressed with your recovery, yes you are lucky, but being healthy and positive before surgery probably played a big role for you. You must be feeling so much better than before the surgery :) I didn't want to post publicly about my complications so i wouldn't make the others that still had surgery nervous, it's already nerve racking. Good news is we survived hurricane Irma! just had a 60ft oak land on my pool screen and against my home, lots of shingles on the lawn, 90mph winds and never lost power, we were lucky. Take care and keep in touch :)

Cindy Williams  Thank you Wanda! Yes I'm confident with my ohs decision, it will be a mini 4" or less. I feel fine so I do wonder do I need the surgery? But I had a 2nd opinion by a cardiologist who confirmed my condition. I'm getting close to being ready, I'm
meeting my surgeon again tomorrow so I can ask more questions, he's great, he's the right surgeon for me, he does 80-100 MVR a year.

I have been taking lorazepam the past two nights, I will continue till Thursday, I now sleep through the night :)

I like control and a good competition so I know I will be working pretty hard to prove how fast I can recover to get back to my life.
Thanks again for your very nice note, thoughts and prayers. Congrats to you on your 2nd anniversary 💖💕🎉

Cindy Williams  Kathy, thank you! You are so nice, I appreciate your encouragement :) Yes, my goal is to be positive and use relaxing techniques the day of surgery so my body can relax and not use energy on what I can't control. I have been so busy trying to get my household/family prepped, so this has kept my mind distracted. I'm always the caretaker so not comfortable knowing I can't do much for a few weeks. I guess I've been "nesting" lol. Thanks again, I will definitely post from the hospital.

Kathy Blank  I did the exact same thing. As a single parent w one in HS one in college and two grown sons and an awesome fiancé - I did everything possible to stay strong for my family and allow them to help during my healing. Please try and focus all your energy on healing and accept as much help as possible especially for the first month! Also- during recovery I did have questions about pain management and this community helped SO much! You will do great heart sister❤️

Cindy Williams  Hi Nancy, you are definitely doing your research, it should help you feel more comfortable, knowledge is power :)
This website is nice to go to, everyone is helpful, I try to give back if I can offer pertinent advice, hopefully I will have a good surgery/recovery to share and comfort others.
I asked a lot of questions to my surgeon also, but then had more, I couldn't get in to see him soon enough so I sent him a written list and he answered each question! I'm going to see him on Monday for my own comfort to go over everything one more time.
My Aetna nurse called yesterday to answer any questions, she too had a mitral valve repair 5 years ago, she was helpful.
Sorry about your knee, gosh, I'm sure that is uncomfortable.
Thanks for reaching out, take care and good luck with your appointment Monday.

Cindy Williams  Hi Tony, thank you so much for your encouragement, that means a lot! I hope my recovery is as good as yours, and wishing your Afib corrects itself. Enjoy your weekend. 💖

Cindy Williams  Hi Keith, I'm so happy they scheduled surgery for you! Thank goodness, that was worrisome. My thoughts are with you and hope your surgery went well and you are recovering well. Just imagine how much better you will feel in the near future. 💖😊

Cindy Williams  Hi David, you have a good GP! Good luck with your surgeon appt, ask lots of questions and ask what you can do to physically prepare yourself for the surgery, breathing excercises, hydration two weeks prior, etc.
This site is great, everyone learns/shares from each other. Take care 💖

Gerald Poulton  If you can walk you really want to keep it up, I have been walking a brisk walk and doing between 5 and 15 kms, 5 days a week. Surgery in 3 days and will continue my walking. But having said that, what each person does has to depend on your heart and health condition.

Cindy Williams  Hi Sandra, omg we live so close, I'm actually in Lake Mary. My husband is picking up a incentive speromter today at a medical supply store, those are also helpful with the breathing. Thank goodness I have stairs because it's not the best weather for walks lately with either heat or rain. Also drinking lots of fluids to stay hydrated two weeks prior helps also. I'm so glad you are confident with your surgeon, that's so important. I guess we can both say that we are fortunate that it was noticed before symptoms! Thanks for reaching out, let's keep in touch 💖😊

Sandra Noetzel  I started playing with the spirometer the other night. With this brutal heat iI have been walking just before sunrise. My sugeon came highly recommended to me when I asked my cardiologist and pulmonologist who would do their surgery if they needed it. Also found that a number of my neighbors have had procedures done by him. Originally I was hoping to go minimally invasive but my research showed to do that would require traveling. That did not work for my personal situation. So sternotomy it is. Glad you reached back to me and yes, let's keep in touch. :)

Cindy Williams  Thank you Steve! You are so helpful and nice to go out of your way to send this. Hope your still doing well! Have a great weekend!