Celina's Journal

I am 5 weeks post surgery and am feeling quite good. The one thing still annoying is soreness around my incision. The incision itself is healed, but the area around it, especially above it, is still sore. Did others experience this? If so, how long did it last? Thanks and Happy Holidays!

I thought I would give everyone an update. My surgery was on Thursday, Nov 16 with David Adams at Mount Sinai in New York. Because we are not local, my pre-admission testing was all done the day before surgery. They found something on the chest xray they did not understand, so they called Wednesday evening and scheduled me for a chest and neck CT scan on Thursday morning. It needed to be checked out before they could decide to go ahead with surgery. It made for a long and stressful day waiting until we got word that the surgery could go ahead as planned (just later in the day than anticipated). Surgery went very well. I had a complicated Barlow’s valve, but Dr. Adams and Dr. Boateng were able to repair it. They had thought they might need to repair the tricuspid valve as well, but it was fine, so it wasn’t needed. I will admit that the first day after surgery (Friday) was tough. I can’t say I was in a lot of pain, but I was pretty uncomfortable. The anesthesia made me fairly nauseaous as well. By Saturday, things had improved significantly and each day has gotten better since. I got out of the hospital yesterday (Monday) and today I was able to walk a couple blocks to the grocery store, walk around the store, and come back to our hotel. I was tired, but not unreasonably so. One thing I did not expect was that most of my pain was in my back rather than my chest. I was told that the position you are in during surgery stresses your upper back and shoulder muscles, hence the problem. It is getting better each day, but is still somewhat stiff. I hope all you have a great Thanksgiving. I am especially grateful this year!