Donna's Posts

may the good lord above watch over you and help you thru this journey just take it one day at a time there will be good days and bad days but it does get better each day week month year i am 20 months out and doing well in phase 3 of cardio rehab slow and easy one day at a time time is a great healer

I'm hearing you Donna. This is a great site to encourage, enquire, read and learn of others who have already had surgery. Isn't it comforting to know that we are not alone & that there are others who have been or are having similar health issues/surgeries. It's a day at a time, and seeing your surgery is on Friday (& I go in tomorrow) I just want to wish you all the best, I pray that your surgery is a success and that the days that follow see you go stronger. Big smiles to you & go easy on yourself.

Donna the best advice I can relay to you is to just relax, open heart surgery is not that bad. I too am having an aortic valve replaced this week on Wednesday, my third one. To give a little peek into what to expect after surgery, once you wake and get off the ventilator (for me the worst part of the whole procedure), they will get you up and sitting in a chair right away. It seems daunting at first with all the tubes sticking out of you, but you won't be in much pain just a little sore. You will probably be in the intensive care unit until they can move you to your room, but once there you get more comfortable. I enjoyed the fact that with a push of a button I could get anything i needed. I liked it so much I didn't want to leave. Within a day or two encourage the doctors to remove some of the tubes you will feel a lot better once they do. You will probably feel some discomfort with the chest staples and sternum incision, a pain pill will take care of that but you probably won't need it very often. You will be encouraged to get up and walk around or sit in a chair which feels better than laying around all day, (have someone bring you a robe and slippers). I'm not used to sleeping on my back so reclining in a chair was great for napping. You will probably be discharged on the fourth day and at that point they remove the IV (the last tube to go) and you can finally go home, take a nice hot shower and begin the recuperation process. You'll be back to normal in about four weeks once the breastbone heals. Good luck and God bless.

I was much more cautious after my first surgery not wanting to do too much and just waiting to heal slowly. After surgery number 2, I just had a different attitude and refused to let the operation keep me down I became more active. Not to say I was 100% after 4 weeks, but I was driving. It's a state of mind. I guess if you think you're superman, you are superman.

Thanks guys. After speaking with all of you I just feel I'm ready to get this over with and be on the other side. They say I don't know what it feels like to feel good anymore and I can't even tell anything is wrong. So I'm anxious to see what feeling good is about. God bless you all. Thank you.

I just saw this and 2 things that I wished I had in the hospital were hand wipes that kill bacteria and a claw that you can squeeze and get things like tissues that fall on the floor and even your candy from the nightstand. It was hard reaching at first.