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..Again i want to say "THANKS" to you all for encouragement and prayers...walking into her ICU room i was met with wires, tubes, beeping and ring'n sounds, machines with numbers flashing, lights flicking...there she lye, puffy and white of face.. nurses are very, very special folks and answered many questions for this dumb wolf...and i really feel helpless...the doctor sat down with me and explained how it went for M during surgery,..difficult, as my mind went everywhere and i could not focus well...just the same i'm hanging together,..for myself it's real easy to detach from any emotion and with others bawl'n i become hard inside, almost angry, got to watch that, they gave me this book with thousands of things to learn, plus video, i started to watch it, can't sit still so i've gotta calm down and go over it for the long haul of Marsh and myself....you guys are the BEST, even if Mike wants $8, i'll pay, do you take checks Ten Bear??..Gene she's at River Bend Hospital..and the "Big fluffy pillow" that is why the nurse held up this monster pillow and said sumthing that i just stared blankly and smiled, (rocket-run brain)..believe me i read your post over and over cause your experiences with this sit-rep is 100 and 10% helpful...Bless all.!! and will pass on your words to Marcia...........
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Great news Mike. Wife must be tough as the husband; Wishing her a speedy recovery.
R/Bear
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it's confusing trying to understand all the stuff you gotta pay attention to, but they will tell you the same thing a hundred times before they let you take her home, and they will give you a visiting nurse for 4 or 5 visits, there are also a lot of support groups, hot lines...etc. never feel shy to reach out to these people...as you have observed they are the best they only what your wife to do well...
congrats, looking fwd to hear about your cross country bicycle trip!
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only good checks, but I'll pass on tis one !! get some ice cream ! and kill the damn chickens !
Mike Dobson (ROH)
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Besides the Pillow, Prune Juice is a really good friend. You will learn how short walks become a time to grow closer together and then you get to exhibit your Domestic Skills and withstand Female Critisism. Enjoy Life.
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Kid, happy to hear Marcia did well. Take care my friend!
jp
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Mike thank you for letting us know the good news. I wish her and the Kid a long life together.
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..Third day after surgery..all is going well, Marcia much more alert,..doing breathing and coughing exercise..getting up and walking..still bitch'n me out too, so i think she's on the road to recovery..Heart attack was an intense time, All you wolves are "Great" and supportive and i "thank you with all my heart" !!
..10/4 Gene,..prune juice.."eck"..domestic skills??..crap..i do boil a mean cup of water.!!
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If u can boil water u can cook MRE'S. I can bring u a case of them if u want. U might try ur local Senior Center to enroll in Meals on Wheels for a while. Glad Marcia still can shoot Flak ur way!!
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..you one sly old fox..GEne, i never said "i LIKed boil'n water."..that's pretty close to work yah know.??
..thank you mucho..neigbhors are bringing over food that should hold out till next winter, wow i'm blown away by good folks here..yah just never know..my good looks.??...0'Boy!!
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I had quad bypass surgery in '04. One thing I found was that having a pillow or something to press against the sternum when coughing or sneezing really helps reduce the pain. So I suggest you get a cute stuff animal she would like for that purpose. My kids gave me a stuffed dog. I have loaned "Balckie" to several other buddies who have had that type of surgery.
Surgeons like to use the two mamery arteries first, then use veins from the leg. My surgeon used a radial arm artery, but just a few weeks later another friend had the same surgeon who told him he no longer uses that vein because of problems with it down the road. Well, I rode 47 miles not long ago with an average HR of 106. No problems.
For yjour wife or any other person who has a plaque buildup problem or is likely to develop one, the Apo-B blood test is one of the best indicators of plaque buildup lipids. The older tests of total cholesterol, HDL, LDL don't tell the whole story. According to a lipid specialist doctor I heard recently, those tests are old school. Tim Russert (TV reporter) had excellent cholesterol numbers, yet he died of a sudden heart attack. His Apo-B numbers were extremely high. Obstruction of the heart left descending artery is the one that usually causes fatal heart attacks. That is what I had.
One final thing, do lots of study on the web about the latest medical studies on heart health.
Oh, one other thing. Prayers are the most important of all. I'll remember your wife at Mass.
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One other thing I failed to mention in my other post. When coughing or sneezing I found it was most helpful to lean forward enough so that your back in NOT against the chair back or bed. That keeps keeps the "shock wave" from reverberating back to the sternum.
Also, the doc will want your wife up fairly early after surgery for a short walk. Do it! The more she walks, the better she will feel. That is also true when she gets home. The doc will also want her to go to cardiac rehab after a few weeks. There the nurses will hook her up to a heart monitor and get her to exercise (mostly leg because of the sternum looseness). Important to do what they ask in rehab. She will feel the looseness in her sternum until it has had time to heal back together. Therefore no heavy lifting (a gallon bottle of milk might be too much early on). They will tell you all of this. Man, going back down this memory lane is a real trip.
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Kid sounds like quite the ordeal. Our prayers are with you. Lots of good encouragement and advice here. I haven't been down this road but I have plenty of hospital experience. You have to be your own health advocate. You have to pay attention and make sure the staff does what they say they are going to do and when. Check the details yourself. Keep a log with dates and time of day--and make sure they see you maintaining a log--keeps them on their toes. And now is time to be the best and most magnificent husband. She needs that from you and I know you have to stuff for it. When I almost died in 99 and had long recovery I found out what true commitment was. My wife was magnificent--still is. Best to you both. And find something to laugh about every day--as they say laughter is good medicine.
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Good to hear she's doing good. It's always worse for the family than the patient. Hang in there.
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When I had my double bypass in 2006 they broke/cut the sternum and wired it back together. About 16-18 month later I had to go back in for them to remove some of the wires as they had come loose. I could feel them moving around with my fingertip. By then the sternum had healed.
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I got so much wire and staples.screws, and pins that I set the Alarm off going INTO Home Depot!!
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I know WORK is just another 4 letter word. No thats scary.
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..Very helpful info, you folks who experienced the ordeal and are pass'n on here..Thank you...Lee, i can only hope the doc used safety wire pliers to secure sternum wires..geeze...Mike Louy, thats a great run-down of your events..thanks for help....Marcia, still very weak and nauseous..i'm attempting to walk her sum..mostly still marching in place..or ten yrd walk before she feels sick to stomach and loose's lunch..hope today to be better...meanwhile back at the ranch the kid runs around in circles getting stuff ready for her home-coming which possibly is sunday...Gene you would be proud of me, washing everything here, moving furniture, cleaning the head, right down in the toilet bowl my adventures takes me, does sparkle, make'n list, shopping and going back again cause it wasn't put on list..(shit)...driving to & fro..dealing with calls from all over the planet..reading the manual of ten thousand things to be done, attending classes..(what agreat story i got to tell about that frackess, 3 women teachers,..sue-sue & suesan,..i'm suppose to watch this show while the three of them talked all at once..and keap asking me if i understood??..raisen their eyebrows then giving me the stare..i think they may have been flirting but it's been so long..i'm clueless..when they said do you UNderStand..i said yup i'm a man..that tossed them into much confussion, i believe they all muttered "what the Hell does that mean" and left the room...i B do'n great..i tink....Bless you all mucho my fellow wolfs..off to the hospital now for more surprise's....and passing on your prayers and info...ever tried to tell a nurse (Marcia) anything..DON't..i got my butt chewed cause i didn't move the table right..GooD Grief.!!
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Proud of you Bro. When Marcia gets home be prepared to crank-up the Heat. I could not get warm for almost a year!! I came home in August. My wife is a retired Nurse also."Don't confuse me with the facts,my mind is already made-up." Attitude wow.
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..Marcia, is make'n progress with each day...walked a little better without nausea, small victory for her...took off a lot of the hardware she had hooked up on her...helped her with a shower, brushed out her hair and blow dried it for her, all the time she watched me in the mirror, talk about pressure!!..then i helped the Nurse with her chest wound, i held sum wires out of the way as nurse removed old dressing, cleaned and swab the cut area, there is this "thing" hanging outa the cut, looked like a leech to me and this flashed me back to the Nam, next thing i know i walking out by the old French bunkers at Song-on-doc where them picker heads climbed onto me and i had to pull them off, the slimmy suckers, hate um..the Nurse was concerned as i was shifting about and slowly i returned to the now, wow that was intense, smells sights etc:, was right thar.. had to explain myself, as i watched her roll that critter back and forth hanging from Marcia's chest cut line..even now i get the hebee geebee's..then lunch..are you kidding me i thought, she ate a good chunk of food and we watched the winter olympics hockey game, i very much into it and talk'n about how it should be played, (played hockey as a kid)..so i pretty much an expurt (in my own mind..right!) anyway all of a sudden i get aware of an odd noise from the wife...darn if she didn't fall fast asleep on me, cutt'n Zee's and with me explaining the intense game...no respect i till yah..oh well not about me anywho..then my brother-in-law sends me a pic on the phone of him down in Florida drink'n tropical concoctions in shorts by the seashore, yah that's exzacklee what i thought too, the D/head....well back in the saddle again..later bro's..
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