Jill's Posts

Thanks everyone :) It's helpful to know it's happened to others. I still have quite a bit of fluid on my R lung and that's after draining 2L from the pleural drain and 1L from the pericardial drain and a ton of diuresis. My weight is down 12 lbs since I arrived 3 days ago AND I wasn't looking puffy or anything prior to coming in. It's crazy. The team here says that they see this happen sometimes in "young" people (I say "young" because I'm 41 LOL) - I guess some people just create a huge inflammatory response to the trauma of surgery and being on pump. It's not something I really knew of or thought of until it happened to me. Good to monitor for increasing shortness of breath and tachycardia post-op though - the smartest thing someone here said to me is that there are good days and bad days in recovery but the gradual trajectory should be upwards. My recovery was going well until it wasn't - then I knew I needed to come back in.

Hi Cameron - just by knowing it's a possibility, you're ahead of the game so you can monitor for symptoms closely. Sounds like it happens to 10-40% of people without a lot of rhyme or reason. Also, I think I have it worse than a lot of people for whatever reason. They did ask me to do daily weights and I probably did them every 3rd day or so. My natural weight fluctuates 5-7 lbs so I didn't pay a huge amount of attention when I was up 5. So - don't be like me. I was still able to do my spirometer - it was a PEP device and actually I felt it helped me when I was getting increasingly short of breath. I had bought an incentive spirometer before surgery "to practice" and on that my baseline pre-surg was 2000 and, post-op best was 1250. While I wasn't getting worse when I started to get more short of breath, I wasn't improving anymore. Other people with post-pericardiotomy syndrome have fever and chest pain - but I didn't have either of those. I wish you the best and hope this doesn't happen to you - be well :)

ooops! whole message didn't come through. Here goes the rest - I was in the ICU for two days due to lack of beds on the step-down unit but transferred there on Friday and then was discharged yesterday on Sunday! The care in the hospital was excellent from the PCA running after me as I left ICU with detangler for my matted, tangled mop of hair to the excellent pain control and decent food. My biggest complaints were, like everyone, the frequent interruptions for tests and vitals. We returned to our Airbnb yesterday. Sleep was a challenge due to the bed here being quite high and also general discomfort. We've made some modifications for tonight (moving to a different room with lower bed) but I would LOVE anyone's sleep suggestions. I'm normally curled into a fetal position on my right side so back sleeping on a wedge is tough. Anyway, just overall very grateful for the excellent hospital experience. I think a lot of that was due to this board and reading everyone's stories/posting questions/etc. It was very helpful to know what to expect. Now I'm going to try my best to enjoy these long days of recovery - such a luxury of time I don't usually have!

Wonderful report and you look great!! I hope you do well with recovery and can enjoy those days off. You might try putting a pillow under your knees. It seems to take some tension off of your spine. Hang in there for a bit. You'll be curled up in that fetal position before you know it. ~❤️

Hi Jill, you look awesome, am happy that you are doing so well. I'm off to see Dr. Svensson for (valve + aneurysm) surgery here soon (6/10) - any good things to know when speaking with him? Can you tell me more about the repair vs replacement option for your bicuspid valve? Wishing you the best in your continued recovery!