Karen's Journal

So I seemed to be doing great, however My follow up X-ray shows a small pericardial effusion. My cardiologist has recommended Colchis one for a month. Feeling the sadness of a setback but trying to remind myself that it’s temporary.

I’m 3 1/2 weeks post op.  In all aspects it appears my recovery is going well, however, I am seriously struggling mentally. I don’t want to do anything that will freak my heart out, but I’m also having a hard time about how much “back to normal activities” I can do. Any help or suggestions on how to figure things out would be greatly appreciated.

I’m having a hard time figuring out a balance between doing enough activity and doing too much. I feel stuck. I get worrried about pushing myself too much and I find myself trying not to jinx myself when I get a good report on something. Any tips or suggestions?

Ok, so I’m home. Got home yesterday. Thank you for all the well wishes! Good things:


. I got 5am surgery slot, so I was in ICU and recovery by noon. I ended up one night in ICU.  I would highly recommend a note pad and paper to write on and communicate afterwards. I remember them saying “can you read that, do you know what that says”? My husband kept the notes and I have no idea what I was writing even though I felt it was clear as day at the time! 😉


2. Dr Roselli and is team were pretty cool - just the whole process of them stopping to talk with you, I really felt like they truly cared about me. I cannot say enough about how cool he is as well. it’s pretty crazy seeing all of the beds lined up for surgery in the hall - completely blew my mind that I got to experience that.

3. I LOVED my guy Bret in ICU. He was absolutely amazing!! Just so sweet, calm and reassuring - def what I needed.  I do not remember them taking the breathing tube out.  

4. I was in surgery, then to icu, transferred to step down the next afternoon. Everyone kept saying I looked so good, my labs were good, chest was good so It was certainly positive.  That being said,  there’s def some holes in communication happening between nurses, techs, assisting etc.  I’m extremely grateful my husband spent the 1st 2 nights with me. If you can,  I’d find someone who can at least be there for night or day, not everyone is available. 

Now to the help questions:
1. It definitely hurts more than I thought for breathing in.
2. I’m low on potassium/anemic. Is this normal? they have put me on a potassium pill and say it will go away.
3. Fatigue/tired - my feet and body feel like I have 10lb bowling balls strapped to them

im sure they’ll be more to come -

I bought protein powder - specifically pumpkin seed protein powder. I thought this would be great for adding to any milkshakes or food the first few days after surgery. Any thoughts on if this will be allowed? I can’t do many of the protein shakes becasue if the fillers that trigger migraines.

Anyone deal with migraines and/or vestibular migraines here? If so, how did you prepare and how was it handled post-op? I definitely get triggered by hunger or lack of food and sleep issues, so I’m trying to find out if there’s anything I can do before surgery or anything I need to mention for after. Thanks in advance for any helpful suggestions and Happy Easter🐥😉

Scheduled to have my heart catheter on April Fool’s Day. I’m definitely trying to send positive thoughts out for an easy procedure and in my wrist would be very helpful. Since my surgery got moved up, I am feeling the pinch of getting last minute items together. I’ve started to listen tot he guided imagery audio that the clinic provides. It’s very soothing to listen to.

Ok, so I had my Cardio Ct yesterday and all was well. No aortic aneurysm. I still have to do my Cath on 4/1. April Fool’s Day, go figure. I’m a bit nervous about that - my Cardiologist made it sound pretty simple, but several posts I’ve read make it seem difficult, in the sense that it would take a couple days to recover so now I don’t know what to think.