Prakash's Journal

Susan Lynn  Welcome, Prakash! You're fortunate to live near one of the country's best hospitals for heart surgery. Wishing you all the best! If you have any questions, just ask.

Prakash Patel  Thanks Susan and Valerie.
I am going to de-stress and relax as my surgery is in a week 2/16.
Will enjoy the super bowl

Klara Čičić  Welcome Prakash! Reading success stories from this site helped me a lot to relax before the surgery. A good old stand up comedy on YouTube also :) You can do this! 

Marie Myers  I don’t know the answer to that question, but i will say (in my opinion) that having longer lasting anesthetic agents are not a bad thing when waking up from open heart surgery. You will have chest tubes in, pacing wires, drains, possibly a breathing tube , bladder catheter, arterial line, neck line, at least one other IV line, and possibly be on the ventilator. So i personally was grateful for the hazy, drowsy state that i was in when i woke up. The time passed more quickly to me, and i slept a lot. Just a thought from someone who has been there… Don’t get me wrong, as a 40+ year nurse anesthetist, i know and love propofol…

Prakash Patel  Thanks for the comments/thoughts. Bit apprehensive as surgery is in two weeks.
I watched this video on the site and the use of rigid sternal fixation with open repairs
https://www.heart-valve-surgery.com/videos/rapid-recovery-patient

christine blackway  Wow, I wish more hospitals would get with this program. Not looking forward to the traditional  wires. ☹️

Grace Mason   Christine you can request rigid fixation if that is important to you. With rigid fixation both plates and wires are utilized. Hospitals tend not to use this if "unnecessary" because it costs more, but they also make money if you choose to go to their hospital for your surgery.
I was met with resistance when I requested it, but I said it was one of the things that was important to me.