A Heart Mended – Open Heart Surgery at 32 (A Story of Recovery) Part - 2
Recovery Day 1 (8 Feb, 2018)
It was now recovery day one and things were beginning to move quickly! Shortly after I opened my eyes, the ICU nurses had me sitting up in bed and then had me attempt my first feat, getting out of bed and sitting up on a chair!
I held my trusty heart pillow, my best friend for the foreseeable future, tightly to my chest and with little discomfort and surprising ease I was able to get out of bed and sit on the chair. The little discomfort likely had to do with the continued drip of Fentanyl they had me on over the night!
Regarding pain, from this day forward there was never a time, during my stay at the hospital, where the pain was truly unbearable. I would experience significant soreness and I was keenly aware that my chest had just been cracked open however my pain was managed very well.
After a quick meal of Jello, chicken noodle soup, and apple juice, which felt amazing, the nurses had me up on my feet and moving about on my first walk. On my first walk I was assisted with a wheeled walker as the nurses were not quite sure how my first steps would go. I was also still hooked up to oxygen, a catheter and other lines so they needed a place to put all of those support systems.
It was about this time that I also realized that I had two ½ inch tubes sticking out of my abdomen. These were drain lines that would carry any post-surgery drainage from my surgery site to a collection container. I had assumed that these tubes were inserted merely an inch or two into my belly, I couldn’t have been more wrong!
My first walk went very well; I felt great! Nelli was at home with the kids and my mom and dad were there to watch my first steps… for the second time!
The physical therapist told me to keep walking until I felt like we should stop. After about 400 meters he informed me that we had walked enough for the first day. He told me that I not only walked about 380 meters further than the average patient on their first walk but that I had actually just walked enough to pass the test to be discharged! Needless to say, I felt great!
As the day came to an end, I was able to eat my first real meal, Korean BBQ chicken with white rice, vegetables, a side of chicken noodle soup… and some chocolate pudding; it didn’t take long for the appetite to come back!
The rest of this day was rather uneventful. The nurses attempted to get me out of the ICU however there were no rooms available in the regular recovery room, so I would spend one more day in the ICU.
Looking back, it is rather comical because the nurses, not having known that I was a Marine, informed me that these recovery days would be very fast paced and very regimented and that it may feel difficult to keep up with such a schedule. Not knowing what to expect I had mild concerns however being a Marine I found myself waiting for the part of the schedule that would be “unbearable!” It never came…
Every hour I was awake I had to perform breathing exercise in my incentive spirometer, a little device where you blow into a tube and make the ball rise, as well as perform coughing exercises. The reason behind this is to ensure that you continue to keep the lungs properly inflated and to prevent pneumonia by coughing out any fluids that may have accumulated in the lungs during the surgery.
After dinner it was time to turn in for the night.
This night was pretty rough. I fell asleep with relative ease however I woke up at some point drenched from sweat and completely unable to find any position of comfort. I recall having to push the emergency call button at some point because in my attempt to adjust the hospital bed to find any degree of comfort, I origami’d the bed in such a way that I could no longer reach the controls. I was in considerable discomfort, unable to move, and all I could do was ask the nurse to please fix this! They laughed and helped me find relative comfort!
I must have passed out from sheer exhaustion however I was then woken up at 4am to get out of bed and to be weighed. This was the one action that I felt was a bit out of place as it resulted in the next few hours being pretty bad. While standing on the scale I began to experience the feeling of extreme cold and I began to shiver uncontrollably. I luckily did not have a fever, but the discomfort would last for quite a while.
