Kate's Photos

In case you'd like to know what OHS#3 was like for me:

I was booked for a "complex redo surgery of aortic valve, mitral valve, and aortic root replacement" on July 21st with Dr Castro, which was a serious surgery I have been told. I truly didn't know if I would make it out of there alive that day given my risks. But I had a lot of love, support, and prayers that gave me the strength that morning to go in. I prepared my death wishes just in case, but mostly I tried to focus on what I needed to do to for my recovery after, things that would make it easier once I was home (comfy recliner, shower chair, family to help, tv recommendations etc).

The surgery itself went perfectly and my On-x valves were replaced with 2 larger St Jude valves. It only took 4 1/2 hours (as opposed to 9 hours for my last one) and Dr. Castro was able to do a "mini-sternotomy." The days that followed were really rough to say the least but luckily most of them were a blur. Due to the number of heavy drugs I needed to help my heart pump more efficiently, to increase my blood pressure, plus the heavy pain meds, my kidneys were injured and my liver enzymes were elevated.

That was very scary to hear them talking about it, however, thankfully those organs recovered on their own over the coming week as I got off some of those meds.

I have a vocal chord injury from the breathing tube, which caused my voice to be just a raspy whisper for about a week and was very frustrating since no one could hear me. It's not back to normal, but it is getting better each week. I had to see an ENT in the hospital to diagnose this and he said this may take 6 weeks total to heal. I had trouble swallowing for weeks which seemed related to that, and that was difficult to manage because I had a number of other issues that affected my ability to eat. My sense of taste was completely off (still is), I had thrush in my mouth, I had severe nausea (despite rotating 3 anti-nausea meds), low appetite, and painful dry heaves at times. Due to diuretics and poor eating, they had a hard time keeping my electrolytes in range, and I wasn't able to swallow the potassium pills, so I needed a lot of IV electrolytes. My vision was also blurry the whole time, which sounds fairly common from what others have told me.

Unfortunately, I ended up needing a pacemaker. It is a fancy dual chamber leadless type so it goes directly into the heart so doesn't show through the skin at all, and it was inserted into a vein in the groin. As I understand it, my heart rate was just too low at times and the upper and lower parts of my heart weren't communicating. Prior to this pacemaker surgery, I had to carry around this heavy external pacemaker the whole time in this hospital. It seemed like my heart was going to take over pacing by itself at times, as they often do, so they waited as long as possible to decide on the pacemaker. It was apparently unusual that patients had these devices for as long as I did, so when I transferred to the cardiac floor, they had to be in-serviced and my new nurse each shift had to come in and review my device with the previous nurse. What a relief to get rid of that heavy thing!

I was in the hospital for 12 days and I've been home for over a week now. Recovery has been an up and down journey like it always is. I was going along ok and even made it out for dinner with my family one night. But I had a side track when I went into Afib and had to go to the ER this weekend, and am now back on yucky amiodarone. I had Afib after my last surgery too. I'm still on diuretics to get the fluids off from surgery. I have pretty bad anemia, despite a blood transfusion, and this will take time to recover from also. My lips and tongue and roof of my mouth still burn, no one knows why, but I sure hope this goes away in time. Pain control has been hard because of balancing low BPs and drug interactions, so only Tylenol for me.

Somedays I feel I am doing so well and some days I feel crummy and have a hard time doing much of anything. I haven't felt nearly as good since the Afib started. It isn't well controlled yet and the medication is hard for me to tolerate with my sensitive system so it will be a waiting game while it settles down and the med gets dialed in. It can feel very scary at times and can trigger a lot of anxiety in me. These have truly been some of the hardest months of my life physically and emotionally, from finding out there was a problem with my old valves to the recovery now.

But I know in a few months, I will feel much better and I look forward to seeing how much better my heart feels with proper fitting valves. Don’t let this post scare you if you haven’t gone through surgery yet because not many will go through three double valve surgeries. For all of you heart warriors going through a recovery process of your own right now, I am right here with you. And also yay we survived and are on the other side of this thing!!

P.S. Me and Dr Castro after surgery

Discharged home today after 12 longgggg days. A shower, fresh air, sun, and home cooked foods are the most amazingly, overwhelmingly wonderful things to feel today and I don’t think I will ever again take these basics for granted. I will update about the experience at some point when I am more recovered but in the meantime thank you so much for your support and care. ❤️

Hi folks! Post-op day 9 update: Kate's husband Jesse again. 

It's been an up and down journey the last week, as it always is. She is having some trouble writing an update due to blurry vision and concentration issues, but she is in what we hope are her last 2 days at the hospital -- mainly because they have been tracking her natural heart rhythm which has been present but too slow at times, dipping into the low 40 bpm, but ranging as high as 100 at other times. After several days of waiting, they decided it was time to do a pacemaker, which is scheduled for tomorrow. The hope is she can get discharged immediately afterwards! In the meantime, she has had to carry around an external pacer this whole time. 

She also had some vocal cord damage from the breathing tube but her voice is slowly coming back. She has had a lot of struggles with nausea and appetite problems. But today she is feeling better and able to eat more food as well as getting some electrolytes while they use diuretics to take fluid off her. Overall she is doing well and makes progress every day, and we've had only good things to say about Dr. Castro and his team at Marin Hospital - the people here have been absolute angels and their kindness has touched us over and over again.

Kate is incredibly thankful for your messages and care. It has helped her a lot to get through this journey, so thank you :-)

PS - Hopefully within the next few weeks she will feel well enough to write a more detailed update.