Bob's Posts

I am 3 weeks removed from surgery. Everything seems to be progressing in the positive direction. It took a while but I now have home health care set up. With the home health care, I have a physical therapist and a RN come visit me twice a week. The RN checks my INR (blood thickness) levels and communicates with the anti-coagulation clinic to adjust my warfarin medication as required. The physical therapist made sure we had the house set up well for me and covered the basics of what I can and can not do. But more than that we covered my walking exercises. It turns out I was walking too slow and not long enough. I guess it was better than going too hard but now I feel like I am making some real progress. I am still having some numbness in my pinky and right side of my chest. I still have a small blind spot in my right eye. I still have episodes of heart palpitation or heavy heart beats and I still have episodes of low blood pressure. Even with all of that I am feeling good about my recovery and where I will be when all is said and done. I met with the surgeon today and he says that I am progressing ahead of schedule. I have been given permission to drive again (but Sonya still says I can not drive for another week or so.) I talked about all of my issues with the surgeon and he says they are all normal and should go away with time. He did however suggest that I go see an ophthalmologist to look at my eye just to make sure nothing serious has happened there. All of my restrictions will be lifted on Christmas day. I have a phone call with my cardiologist on Monday to get him all up to date with my recovery and he will be taking over most of my recovery from here on. My daily exercise consists of 3 - 10 minute walks at a pretty good clip. It surprises me how much I am able to do. The next step will be 2 - 15 minute walks. Hopefully my recovery keeps progressing in the positive direction and I am better than I was before the surgery. Thanks again for all the support and love, Bob

Well, let's get some things out of the way here. First and foremost, Wayne, I am sorry. Evidently Wayne didn't have as much to do with my crappy sleep as I thought. I did not sleep good at all. I think I am done with the norco. It gives me weird dreams and I don't feel very good on it. At this point I will be finding other means of pain relief. I woke up with an odd spot in my vision. It was similar to vision issues I get when a migraine starts so I don't think too much of it. Well at about 10 am the entire top field of vision of my right eye grays out, no vision at all, just a gray sheet in the top half of my right eye. My wife sees me doing goofy things with my eyes and asks me what I am doing. I tell her what is going on and she immediately calls 911. The call isn't half over and my vision is already back to mormal, but the paramedics are on the way anyway. They show up and check my vitals and everything seems reasonable. They suggest I go to the hospital to get checked out and offer me a ride. I hyme and haw for a second, and Sonya just says, "Yes, he is going." So I have my first ambulance ride, how uneventful. No sirens, no speeding, no running red lights. The only good thing is that I didn't have to wait in the lobby to get checked in. Probably worth the $1000 the ride is going to cost. Just like the day before, another round of blood tests and chest x-rays is ordered. The white blood cell count came back a little higher than the last one I had before being released from the hospital. Other than that, everything looked good. They have me an IV to up my fluids in case I was dehydrated (I filled their pee bottle plus a little more while I was there, i don't think I was dehydrated.) The ER Dr. finally gets a hold of a surgeon at my surgeon's office and agree I should be placed on antibiotics as a precaution. I am finally released from the ER a little after 2. Home bound once again, and once again, Sonya ends up taking the long way home. The rest of the day was rather uneventful. What amazes me is how much the way I feel can change and how quickly it happens. I can be feeling absolutely great, with no pain, or heart irregularities and 5 minutes later I feel exhausted, out of breath and my heart is pounding. I am trying to find triggers that cause these moments. I don't know that there are any, it may just be the nature of the beast that is recovering from heart surgery. I did notice that I had a major set back shortly after I took some Acetaminophen (which has caffeine), that may not be my replacement for the norco pain meds. Thanks again for all the support and Love! Bob

Well, my atrib-fibrillation is not completely under control. It comes and goes but most of the bouts aren't too bad or last too long. I am staying on the oral meds to try to control them. The hospital has gone back and forth about letting me go or not with my cuomadin clinic not set up and my inr levels still fluctuating plus my white blood cell count has been on the high side. After my morning x-ray and blood work, the cardiologists decided my numbers were good enough for my condition, so I am headed home today! I am not sure how I feel about that at first. Am I ready physically? Am I ready with my meds still not completely worked out, who know what else. But, I haven't slept much here at the hospital and I think I will sleep much better at home. My roommate in the hospital, Wayne, was only supposed to be in the hospital for one night but he ended up staying all 3 night with my in recovery due to various setbacks on his side. Wayne was a nice enough fella, a bit of an old crotchety guy that didn't have any visitors. His wife had passed away a few years ago and maybe his other local family and friends didn't want to go to the hospital due to covid. He would text with a few people. I only know this because he was having a difficult time seeing and he would use the phones voice recognition to respond to texts. It was often entertaining as he would have to say the same thing 3 or 4 times before the phone translated his text properly. Anyway, my only true gripe about Wayne was his nighttime activities. He would stay up until midnight watching TV and use the incredibly loud nurse call for any willy-nilly need he thought he had. On the last night, it was sometime after one that he finally turned the tv off. He must have fallen asleep quickly as he started moaning in his sleep. This was new! It was a near constant moan broken up by very sudden and loud coughs, than right back to moaning. This is not a good night. I eventually get some ear plugs in and was able to sleep a little. Turns out Wayne was getting to leave shortly after me. As expected, the day went slow for checking out. Sonya showed up about 11. I had visits from the physical therapist and cardiologist. I took a shower and changed into real clothes. I did become a convert into the pee bottle! How nice is it to just grab the bottle, open it and place it in the right position and let loose, I don't have to get out of bed in the middle of night 2 or 3 times, get cold and uncomfortable just to go pee. Of course, the pee bottle goes along with the convenience of not wearing any underwear in the hospital! Check-out time finally comes around 1:15. I am still apprehensive about leaving but as soon as the door opens to go outside I know it is the right choice. I feel a rush of energy and health run through me. Sonya ended up taking the long way home on accident, so it was about 2 hours for us to get home and it was great to be there.