Doug's Photos

1/2 Week Post-op: walking off the main campus around the big "donut" water feature at the font entrance. Was in ICU for 1 day after surgery, mostly over night, 2 days in the step down unit. I was lucky to have only one complication from surgery, a minor one at that (hiccups, which apparently can occur when the vagus nerve under the heart is exposed to blood, but quickly fixed with a med... and I'm reading now possibly ice cream!). I had a variety of issues unrelated to the surgery, however, that that made these days more difficult - (1) a persistent red rash (possibly from pre-op contrast dyes?) (2) sleep apnea, for which I use a dental appliance but had been advised not to bring to the ICU (bad Idea, I ended up being over-treated with O2, then a CPAP, then a drug to reduce nausea - but was able to resume using the dental device the next day), (3) a "knot' in my back (mid- back, right side, above the robotic approach site - probably from a workout the previous week that I'd not stretched properly afterward then jumped in a car then airplane for travel - hurt like a bugger, only got tighter as time went on -stretching/hot/cold/massage has been helping). and finally (4) up sleepless in the John all of one night from Lasix (turns out I'm more in need of FloMax - I feel a like a "real" boy now!). Have started getting outside to walk a bit - heart feels great! stamina yet to come... follow-up appointment Monday.
On the surgery itself: Dr. Gillinov said it went really well. My wife tells me when he came in to see her and my son after surgery, he continued with "I was wrong," and that he had learned something from me. He had not thought it possible for an episode of endocarditis from over 30 years ago to have caused the amount of damage that he found without being followed by heart failure within 6 months - but had confirmed the damage was from endocarditis. In the end, it end up being a simple repair; the valve was split down the middle and mostly just needed a few stitches.