Bill's Journal

We left the Cleveland Clinic today at 4 PM and arrived home in Columbus at 6:30 PM. From the time I walked into the hospital on Wednesday to home was a bit more than 84 hours. Hard to believe so much happened in so little time! The CC gives out heart-shaped pillows to help heart surgery patients cough to clear their lungs after surgery. I'll post a photo separately. As far as I know, the only way to get this pillow is by being a heart surgery patient. They aren't sold in the CC gift shop. The day of my surgery they did 32 heart operations, with 3 of them transplants - 12 very busy surgeons! I've discovered another advantage to a thoracotomy that I didn't know aboutr before my operation. I've had essentially zero pain from my incision - the most pain I had was from the chest drainage tube. Once that was removed my pain has been minimal - right now I'm not taking any pain meds (though I do have pain pills if I need them). Tuns out that because a thoracotomy cuts through regular tissue the surgeon at the end can inject exparel into the incision. This is like novocaine and it numbs the incision for up to 7 days. So we'll see what pain control is like on May 24! Anyway, we are home and now I need to regain my strength and stamina. In the surgeon's report on the excised valve it's clear the valve was in very bad shape. I'm lucky my heart muscle was not significantly damaged before the valve was replaced. According to the surgeon's comments the timing was perfect.

Discharge from the Cleveland Clinic step down unit should be later today. The nurse said discharges are usually done in the afternoon, by around 3 PM. Then it's back to Columbus.

I've moved from CARU (where most of the patients were in for TAVR or mitral clip or some other catheter based valve work) to what CC calls the step down room (even though I went from the 3rd floor to the 5th floor. I rode a wheelchair at 10:30 this morning to my new room. I also experienced hospital food - even at the CC it's not very good. This afternoon I took my first walk down the hall and back. Before that happened most of the tubes that had been stuck in me at some point were removed. I only have one IV remaining in my left hand. So far, the worst part of this experience has been the breathing tube and how it irritated my throat. Of course, I've had some pretty strong pain klllers up to now too. We'll see how I feel once I'm off of the strongest pain killers.

Bill is successfully thru surgery! Dr Johnston was able to do the mini-thoracotomy and completed the operation in about 2-1/2 hours. No blood transfusion was needed. The valve was replaced with a 27 mm Perimount valve, which has a good track record. The surgery went well enough that Bill is in the Cardiac Accelerated Recovery Unit, rather than ICU. He woke up after 2 pm, and the RN began the process of weaning him off the breathing tube.

A few preop tests and exams were done Tuesday morning and Tuesday after noon I had preop and anethstesia clearence and met with the surgeon. The surgeon said there is a 97% chance I can have a mini right thoracotomy (sternal sparing) with the missing 3% due to things that can't be seen on the imaging - mainly scar tissue around the heart from having pericarditis (which I doubt very much I have had). The thoracotomy approach requires moving the heart a bit to replace the valve and the surgeon won't know if that works until he tries. The surgery is currently scheduled for 8 AM on Wednesday, though this could slip if there is an emergency or a transplant operation becomes possible. We need to be to the hospital by 6 AM.