Sommer's Guestbook

Sommer Russell  Im doing great Jeremiah! Thank you so much for checking in on me!!! I hope you are well. I was reading about your heart palpitations, and yes, I still have them, too. I feel them at night, at least once during the night. Last a few seconds and then gone. I hate being on Coumadin. I never knew the toll it would take on me. Each week is a guess if I will be close to being therapeutic. I haven’t had greens in a very long time and no matter what the increase my Coumadin too, my INR will temporally increase and then drop again. Frustrating! How are things with you?

  Hi Sommer!
Good to hear from you.
I pray that things stabilize for you as you continue your ohs recovery journey.
I'm progressing in my recovery. It's been a slow but steady recovery for me with occasional flare ups of low bp/high heart rate, ocular migraines, palpitations, and sternum pain.
Ohs is certainly no joke.
Peace and blessings to you!

Sommer Russell  Vicky- I'm curious about this. Ateclastisis? I did have a problem with my left lung 2 weeks after surgery and required a chest tube for a small hemopneumothorax. I used my air incentive religiously and was able to get my lung function back to normal. My last chest x-ray was when the symptoms started was completely clear. I do wonder if I do suffer with ateclastisis and it just takes time for the lung to heal? I'm keeping a journal of my activities to see if I can find a correlation between my activities and the air hunger episodes. I am seeing fewer days of the air hunger- it is still weekly, but I hope to stretch it to every 2 weeks! It is so scary when you can't get a good breath. Did you have this problem? And, what did you find to help with the symptoms? If I walk outside into the cool air- it seems to help. Thanks so much Vicky!!!

Sommer Russell  Hey Chris! Good to hear from you. The shortness of air is likely from being deconditioned. I start cardiac rehab next week and look forward to getting back my stamina. I am starting to feel a bit blue thinking I would be 100% by now. But, each week is amazing how much improved I am from the week before. I’m not loving the mechanical valve. It is loud and I hate Coumadin. Though, even if I had gone with the tissue I still might have ended up on Coumadin since I’ve had some afib along the way. Hope you are well!!!

Sommer Russell  Rebecca, I came home a few days after mechanical valve and aneurysm repair. I headed back to the hospital 2 weeks post-op for a-fib RVR. I was on lopressor in hopes of that not happening. Turned out that I had fluid to accumulate on my pericardial sac that was also irritating my left lung causing a pleural effusion. Back to surgery yesterday to have pumps placed to drain this stuff off. I hope this is the last bump in the road! Did anything like this happen to you?

Rebecca DeMarino  Oh my, Sommer - sorry to hear that! Hope you won’t need the drains for long! It sounds like your doctors are watching closely and you are in good hands. I had an extended stay in ICU because of low blood pressure. I went into AFIB twice but came back out. Then they had to leave my last tube in because of fluid build up. I came home 11 days post op, I’ve been home a week now, so hopefully I’m past the bumps too! Praying your stay this time is short - keep me posted on how your doing.