Andrea's Posts

Wow, it has been a long five weeks. I had my surgery on 12/19. I was in surgery for 5-1/2 hours. I have a new bovine INSPIRIS RESILIA aortic valve, a replaced aortic root to fix the aneurysm, and a successful double bypass. They kept me sedated and intubated the first night so the breathing tube came out the following day. At that point, I was happy to be alive! The next few days were a bit blurry. I was in a lot of pain from the chest tubes. Everyone was spot on, the sternum pain was nothing compared to the chest tubes. I was on a temporary pacemaker but by day 3 I was struggling. It was determined I would need a pacemaker. On Christmas Eve, I got a state of the art Biotronik (MRI friendly), pacemaker. That made a huge difference and things really started moving forward. I was able to go home on Day 10. My pacemaker incision opened up to expose two internal sutures and is now being treated by a wound specialist. My groin where they put me on the heart/lung bypass wouldn't close so it is also being treated by a wound specialist. My new pacemaker is also indicating I'm in A-fib about 3% of the time, so I was put on Coumadin and my INR is moving very slowly. So, with the exception of these items, I am getting a little better everyday. Hopefully as soon as my groin wound heals I'll be able to start cardiac rehab. I must admit that this is by far the hardest thing I have ever done. I can't say how thankful I am to my husband and my mom (who is an RN) for their support and assistance, as it has been nothing short of amazing.