I’m finally able to absorb and
record some of the events of the latest round with the open heart
surgery. I know Judy kept you somewhat up to date but I’m one for
details.
Plus, I still need to record my version
of it to tuck away in the chronicles of
time here in my Blog.
The days are running closer and closer together and I ‘m a
little confused by some of the events. But I’ll try. Excuse me if I seem to jump around.
After a week delay, my open heart surgery was performed without incident on May 14th. The surgery itself apparently went well. The recovery was five days of hospital. It
was not easy and even got worse at times. I could not sleep at all due to
pain and other problems that developed post surgery.
Then I went home and tried recovering here. There was pain and other problems. They too got worse.
This covers from the day before
Memorial Day, because it was such a significant and difficult time.
As usual, I was still in pain from my quintuple bypass
surgery with pig aorta valve, aka ‘CABG-6’ and often referred to as ‘Cabbage-6’
on May 14th.
Everything I’m
adding here starts with severe pain. Only not in my chest which
had been cracked open like a walnut. No, almost all my pain was now
focused in my left leg where the veins were ‘harvested’ to replace the blocked
arterial veins of my heart.
Saturday morning I was up just before 6:00 AM to start my medications. I was attempting to control the pain with simple Tylenol
tablets because no other pain pills worked. Almost all the strong meds caused really bad
side effects that were even worse than the pain.
Morning is the best time for me to start taking some of the pills. There are many, but twice as many at night. I took my thyroid pill then immediately my two Tylenol pills. There would be six more pills to take at breakfast. I took them with water without fanfare, turned and suddenly
my face flushed with moisture. I was immediately enveloped by nausea. That was immediately compounded by extreme dizziness and light-headiness, so much so that
I quickly stumbled to my recliner only 6 feet away. I passed out in the
chair.
Judy woke about two hours later and found me that way.
I recall trying to tell her I had no energy and to call 911. She did and
a few agonizing minutes later they were there.
At first there were a lot of questions which I tried to
answer. I could not speak loudly or clearly above just a whisper. I
didn’t have the energy to make a sentence: just use single words to answer
their questions.
Nor could I move. I was totally helpless. I was
frightened.
I felt myself being hoisted onto a gurney and rolled along
the sidewalk to the ambulance where I was hastily loaded.
I heard them tell Judy to ride up front. Good.
An IV bag was introduced into my arm. I was cold.
And we slowly, quietly left Terra Mariae headed to Lakeview
Regional Hospital. It was probably 7:00 AM.
When we arrived at the emergency entrance at the hospital I
still could not speak more than a whisper. The Trauma Staff went into
‘test mode.’ They systematically checked me for everything, including
dehydration. There was a chest X-ray, and I think some kind of
ultra-sound. Not sure by then. I still could not move or speak
clearly. They planned a CT Scan and spoke of dyes that would make me feel
warm and like I was peeing, and to not worry. It was cancelled with me
actually in the CT Scan machine. I was freezing. Heavy, warm
blankets were lain across me. More were added later. Then they
abruptly re-scheduled the CT Scan.
Then, everyone was gone except for Judy and me. It was
very quiet. She held my hand.
The Trauma Surgeon returned. He and Judy talked and
talked. Turns out he is Nephew # 2’s neighbor.
Another doctor came by. But he was obviously
credentialed well above all the staff on the floor. He tried to assure
Judy.
Meanwhile, I just lay there like a corpse for six hours while they
got around to admitting me back into the hospital. Both of us were
freezing. Even through my blurry eyes I could see Judy shivering, she held
on to me.
I finally got a room. I was slowly coming
around. I was hungry. It took a while.
There’s more… A lot more… But for right now,
break. Tired.
I just discovered that I didn’t post the part above to my blog above last
night. Too tired. And now I’m
already back from seeing my Cardio-surgeon. The staples were removed from my chest and I was declared ‘good,’ but still
with some problems that will hopefully go away in time.
And I have fluid around my heart. Not much, but enough
to make breathing difficult. It’s worse when I lie flat or on my side.
But back to the story that resulted in the 911 Call.
The leg pain mentioned
above was probably caused in part by the staples and the compression stockings,
or made more painful by it. But to not take any chances the emergency center took swabs of my leg damage so that cultures could be tested by the Infectious Disease Department,
At one point
the emergency crew concluded the inflammation was brought on by Cellulites, “…a common and potentially serious infection
caused by bacteria. The bacteria infect the deep layers of skin and tissue
beneath the skin. The first sign of cellulites is usually red and
swollen skin.” They continue to treat
it like it was cellulites.
No matter what is causing it, it is still oozing 'stuff' from the holes and my leg hurts like hell.
This is what the leg looked like when 911 was called.
Compression stockings obviously have side effects.
In addition, after 15 days the staples were already covering over with
new skin. Extremely sensitive. So much so I needed two pushes of
morphine to reduce the pain of removing them. The morphine didn’t help in
the least. I felt everything and it hurt like Living Hell.
Now I’m home and struggled to get any sleep at all last
night. And when I did I was soon awakened so I could pee off yet another
few ounces of the 25 pounds of liquid built up in my body. It’s gradually
being absorbed and released in my pee. I still have about 9 pounds to go.
This has not been fun. Even now I occasionally have
lapses into the dark world of fear that it could get worse. Depression
still rises its ugly head now and then and I try to overcome it with humor.
I see my cardiologist tomorrow and home health later in the day. I know they are going to be proud of me and how much progress I've made
Hopefully, I will be ready next week to start rehab.
This has been one of the most painful and emotionally difficult medical events in my life. I'm told I will one day look back on it and be glad I had it done.
