ABHIJIT's Journal

My heartfelt thanks to everyone who encouraged me to be positive and confident, and shared their personal experience with me, before I went in for my open heart surgery for multiple different procedures. 

Today is exactly 4 weeks since the surgery and honestly, I should have joined back on the conversation much earlier. But I felt very lazy, spending most of my time sleeping in between breakfast, lunch, and dinner and the recommended walks after those. There was little energy even for Netflix, so getting on my computer was last on my mind. Sorry for the delay.

To briefly share my experience, at the risk of sounding totally crazy, I have to candidly say that the nearly 6 hour surgery was "a breeze". I still cannot believe it myself. My family told me that I opened my eyes in the cardio vascular ICU (CVICU) of Hoag Hospital (Newport Beach, Orange County, California) within an hour of being brought there after the surgery, and that they had removed the intubation while I was in the surgical theatre. From the various experiences I read about I was worried about this as it seemed like a challenging situation having a tube down your throat while you are awake. So it was a great relief I was spared that.

Here is the first part that amazed me the most. Within 6 hours of being in the CVICU, the nursing staff (I believe on the surgeon's order)  had me get out of bed with all the multiple tubes and monitors attached, and had me sit on a recliner! And yes, I could do it without any struggle or difficulty! And for the next 3 hours I happily sat there and chatted with my wife and children. It was only day 1. Amazing.

The second part that amazed me the most too, is that throughout my stay at the hospital for 7 days (2 days at the CVICU and 5 days at Telemetry) I hardly ever felt any pain. Not in and around the sternum or in and around the 2 tubes sticking out of my stomach. Whenever asked my response was always "occasionally, if I move, it's between 2 and 3 but mostly it is maybe 1" on the standard 10 point chart. I cannot explain this except to think that the pain management by the staff was nicely proactive and highly effective. 

The only unexpected thing was that the cox maze for my persistent Afib did not result in what I was hoping for and my heart rhythm seemed to bounce around a lot. That is why I spent an additional 2 days at the hospital so they could send me home with an ICD implant. Which to be honest is not such a big deal.

All in all, I believe that because of the blessings of the Good Lord, the amazing skill of my cardiothoracic surgeon (Dr. Anthony Caffarelli), the good wishes from friends and well wishers like yourselves, and the love from my family, I am very fortunate to have had such a successful surgery without any complications, at age 73.  Yes, it does feel very nice to be alive and get a second shot at life. 

Got a call from Hoag Hospital late last night that my surgeon got called in for an emergency surgery (that was 16th late night) and so my surgery which was scheduled for early morning on 17th (today) got postponed. Surgeon called this morning and explained the delay and was apologetic, which was very decent of him, but there was no need for the apology. Attending to someone whose need is urgent was the right call.
Anyway, my surgery is now scheduled for May 19th early morning.

I am undergoing mitral valve replacement with concomitant Afib maze procedure for my persistent Afib and wanted to know what the experience is like starting after one wakes up after the surgery in the ICU and over the next few days