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Re: LOL,,,,,,, UCLA Prof: "We Need To Seriously Question Ideal Of Private Home Ownership" 

By: Decomposed in POPE 5 | Recommend this post (2)
Mon, 13 Jan 20 11:09 PM | 34 view(s)
Boardmark this board | Pope 5 		Msg. 48955 of 62138
(This msg. is a reply to 48944 by Decomposed)
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Re: "I have a cardiology appointment in about two hours, so maybe I'll learn more about how I'm doing."I'm back. Doc says I'll live.

The general consensus - both at the hospital following surgery, at home by visiting nurses and physical therapists, and today at the cardiologist's office - is that I'm doing exceptionally well.

A nurse came in to see me before the doctor came in. She asked the usual questions about my blood pressure, medications, etc., then asked if anything significant had changed since my last visit. I said, "Yeah, I guess. I had open heart surgery three weeks ago." Her eyes popped.

Before the doctor came in, I heard her in the hall. "I didn't know. He looks so GOOD!" she was saying. LOL... The doc came in and saw me laughing. He said most patients look like the walking dead this soon after being opened up.

So, yeah. I'm doing well.

I brought a list of questions and concerns with me. He answered all of them, saying that what I'm experiencing is A) Normal, B) Minor, C) Temporary. I did report an odd spasm that started this week and he took closer note of it. He wants me to keep an eye on it - which, of course, I would anyway. It's sort of a shudder that I experience every ten minutes or so throughout the day when I inhale deeply or yawn. He thinks it might be due to an exposed nerve tied to chest movement. There's no pain associated with it, and he thinks it will likely go away of its own accord as I recover.

He checked out my ribcage and said the two sides are not moving independently when he presses on them. In other words, three weeks after surgery and the two sides are beginning to knit. I have an appointment with the surgeon in about ten days. He'll do some sort of a moving X-ray on me where he'll be able to tell if they are knitting PROPERLY. If they aren't, I could be screwed. "Loose sternum," I think, is what he called it. It's apparently a very difficult thing to fix. But so far it doesn't sound like I have it.




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Gold is $1,581/oz today. When it hits $2,000, it will be up 26.5%. Let's see how long that takes. - De 3/11/2013 - ANSWER: 7 Years, 5 Months


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Re: LOL,,,,,,, UCLA Prof: "We Need To Seriously Question Ideal Of Private Home Ownership"
By: Decomposed in POPE 5
Mon, 13 Jan 20 5:17 PM 		Msg. 48944 of 62138

cmicro:

Re: "How are you feeling today? Hopefully gradually stronger in small increments.."I'm glad to hear you're feeling better. We tend to make light of colds, but as we age the likelihood mounts that one of them will prove serious. Gotta deal with colds and flus quickly before they develop into something worse.

I have a cardiology appointment in about two hours, so maybe I'll learn more about how I'm doing. I seem to be doing really well, but my ribcage still hurts. Nights remain the worst since I can't lie on my sides at all right now and lying on my back for very long has always been problematic.

I have a persistent problem with dehydration, and when I lie on my back for more than a couple of hours, it starts to feel like all the wet tissue (lips, tongue, eyes) in my head is mummifying. It causes me to wake up with migraines, too. I've had a dozen of them since the surgery when I only had one in the prior year. Maybe the doc today can shed a little light on that, but I don't think it's his specialty. The surgery only made the dehydration an issue because of the way it has forced me to sleep. Tossing and turning has always helped - it evens out whatever part of me is most dried out - but now I can't toss and turn.

Last night I tried sleeping on my side. That's been hard because it's painful. If you consider that my ribcage is wired together up the sternum you'll understand why that is. But I got onto my left side and was fairly comfortable when the whole torso suddenly went "*crack* *crack* *crack* *crack*" over about two seconds. It didn't hurt but it worried me enough that I rolled onto my back and didn't try that again. I hope I didn't do anything stupid like break whatever it is that's holding me together - but I feel well enough today so I doubt it. I'm probably fine.

The heart itself feels odd. As best I can describe it, it feels most of the time as if there's a Master Lock hanging off my neck like a pendant. When I lean back, I'd swear there was something pushing on my chest. It's not exactly painful, but it's incessant. It usually gets worse toward evening, and it usually tips me off that it's time to take some tylenol. I'm taking pills 4 times a day now...

I slept a little better last night, actually sleeping from 2 a.m. until 6 a.m. That's the best rest I've had since the operation. Usually I'm up every 90 minutes, so 4 hours was great.

My heart is sometimes audibly pounding. It's apparently because the pericardial sac which surrounds the heart was cut upon during surgery, as it must be. The surgeons don't seal it again after heart surgery since doing so can prevent the heart from being able to fully expand. The result of it being open is a sometimes disconcertingly loud heartbeat. I'll get used to it.

That's the quick summary. Thanks for asking.

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