Well, I'm back. Sorta. I took a week long hiatus from the internet after my surgery to try and focus more on my recovery. But here's part of the story for anyone interested:
Wednesday morning of the surgery we had to be at the hospital by 5 AM. I decided to ride my bicycle there simply because I had never heard of anyone riding a bicycle to an open heart surgery appointment. My son decided to ride with me. My wife drove my truck and hauled the bikes home afterwards.
Surgery was at 7. By the time they had me prepped and in the waiting area I was feeling pretty anxious. I said "goodbye" to my family and they wheeled me into the OR. The last thing I remember is expressing my nervousness to the staff who were making preparations. They assured me I would be completely unconscious and that everything would be fine. They were right. Whatever they hit me with worked so good that I can't even remember them sedating me.
I woke up around noon and my breathing tube was already out. Apparently I was breathing so well on my own that I was fighting against the tube to get air, so they pulled it out extremely early. I don't remember much until they moved me into a chair around 4 PM. The move was excruciating. Family came back to visit that evening, after which they moved me back into bed for the night which was even more excruciating.
About 2 AM Thursday all of the heavy anesthetic finally wore off and the pain got really bad. The next 24 hours or so was pretty ugly, to the point where if they had placed a euthanasia form in front of me I would have gladly signed it. They had to give me morphine three or four times during this time on top of the Hydrocodone and frankly I couldn't sense that it made any difference. I went for a couple of walks, I think the first was 100 feet and the second was maybe 150 feet. Both walks had me breathing hard and tired me out to the point where I had to take a nap afterwards.
Thankfully by Friday I was much improved. The catheter came out which made me feel way better, especially when moving. I walked about 1200 feet total throughout the day in about five different sessions. I was still pushing a wheelchair for balance and had to have a nurse carry the case for my chest tube, but I was becoming much more mobile.
Saturday I was able to stand up and sit down in a chair unassisted. I still needed help getting in and out of bed due to the inability to use my arms. The chest tube came out late that morning (feels really weird) and at that point I could walk by myself without a nurse. I could also now use the bathroom any time I wanted without calling for help. I just had to roll my IV tower with me. I took advantage of this new freedom and walked tons of laps around the floor. They had calculated that each lap was 225 feet. I pushed myself to make 24 laps throughout the day, for right about a mile.
Sunday found more improvement. I walked a total of 47 laps (2 miles) and set a new hospital record. The only thing holding me back from getting discharged was they couldn't get my blood to thin.
Monday my blood was still too thick, but they decided to send me home anyway. I have to give myself shots in the abdomen until my blood is thin enough, which isn't awful but not ideal either. I made it home and spent the afternoon napping. Unfortunately by Monday night it was also obvious that I had caught a cold, which sucked. Coughing and a freshly split sternum are a very painful combination. To compound things, I was adamant about coming home without any narcotic pain killers, so I was left with only Tylenol to keep the pain in check.
Tuesday was rather rough with the cold in full swing, and being unable to find a comfortable sleeping position. I still managed to get out and walk two miles. I made it through the day and Tuesday night I was exhausted enough that I slept well.
So here I am typing this on Wednesday morning. I have a long recovery road in front of me, but at the same time it is somewhat amazing to look at how far I've come and think that a week ago I was in the middle of open heart surgery.
