Kate's Photos

I am now about 12 weeks post op. Things are kind of slow going here in my recovery process, with multiple setbacks and a few ER visits. A few days ago, I pulled something in my rib which is very painful and I think was just from getting out of my bed. I had slept in my recliner for months, including before my surgery, so when I started sleeping in bed, it brought on new pains. I guess I wasn’t quite ready for it yet, so I’m back to the recliner temporarily :-( I had a cough for 4 weeks due to pleural effusions which is much better but now it comes and goes. It seems like I need to stay on diuretics for a while longer so we’re playing around with dosing. I also still have some “atelectasis” or lung collapse in my right lower lobe which has been present since surgery. Have any of you had issues with your lungs recovering so slowly? And then my electrophysiologist is ordering a home cardiac monitor to look for any arrhythmias that could be contributing to my dizzy spells and periodic shortness of breath. It seems I may have been wrongly diagnosed with Afib a few months ago in the ER, so we shall see. I get very frustrated with the setbacks but I have to keep reminding myself that I am very early on in the grand scheme and this is my 3rd open heart so I somewhat expected more pain and slower healing. I know I’m just very lucky to be here, and it makes me teary sometimes. I can’t walk my dog yet because he’s a puller, but here is a picture of him for you dog lovers. This is Kai! He’s not an official therapy dog but he sure helps me get through the harder days.

At post surgery week 5 from OHS #3, I am noticing I am excessively tired, bored, and have many different pains in my upper body and ribs. I don’t like how I’m progressing due to other factors I’m dealing with but I knew this would be a long road for me. I’m sick of being on all of these drugs that make me feel crappy. And I realized the dreaded post cardiac surgery depression was coming on. So I made sure to plan some small outings with my hubby this weekend to some places that make me feel more like me. One of these is a local garden where you can do self guided tours. It was a perfectly beautiful day and there were lots of benches for rests. I guess we just have to find time and activities where we can feel “normal” and like ourselves, even though we may not be at our normal pace quite yet. This pic is my hubby and me at the garden. I don’t know how I would have gotten through any of these surgeries without this guy. 💕

In case you'd like to know what OHS#3 was like for me: I was booked for a "complex redo surgery of aortic valve, mitral valve, and aortic root replacement" on July 21st with Dr Castro, which was a serious surgery I have been told. I truly didn't know if I would make it out of there alive that day given my risks. But I had a lot of love, support, and prayers that gave me the strength that morning to go in. I prepared my death wishes just in case, but mostly I tried to focus on what I needed to do to for my recovery after, things that would make it easier once I was home (comfy recliner, shower chair, family to help, tv recommendations etc). The surgery itself went perfectly and my On-x valves were replaced with 2 larger St Jude valves. It only took 4 1/2 hours (as opposed to 9 hours for my last one) and Dr. Castro was able to do a "mini-sternotomy." The days that followed were really rough to say the least but luckily most of them were a blur. Due to the number of heavy drugs I needed to help my heart pump more efficiently, to increase my blood pressure, plus the heavy pain meds, my kidneys were injured and my liver enzymes were elevated. That was very scary to hear them talking about it, however, thankfully those organs recovered on their own over the coming week as I got off some of those meds. I have a vocal chord injury from the breathing tube, which caused my voice to be just a raspy whisper for about a week and was very frustrating since no one could hear me. It's not back to normal, but it is getting better each week. I had to see an ENT in the hospital to diagnose this and he said this may take 6 weeks total to heal. I had trouble swallowing for weeks which seemed related to that, and that was difficult to manage because I had a number of other issues that affected my ability to eat. My sense of taste was completely off (still is), I had thrush in my mouth, I had severe nausea (despite rotating 3 anti-nausea meds), low appetite, and painful dry heaves at times. Due to diuretics and poor eating, they had a hard time keeping my electrolytes in range, and I wasn't able to swallow the potassium pills, so I needed a lot of IV electrolytes. My vision was also blurry the whole time, which sounds fairly common from what others have told me. Unfortunately, I ended up needing a pacemaker. It is a fancy dual chamber leadless type so it goes directly into the heart so doesn't show through the skin at all, and it was inserted into a vein in the groin. As I understand it, my heart rate was just too low at times and the upper and lower parts of my heart weren't communicating. Prior to this pacemaker surgery, I had to carry around this heavy external pacemaker the whole time in this hospital. It seemed like my heart was going to take over pacing by itself at times, as they often do, so they waited as long as possible to decide on the pacemaker. It was apparently unusual that patients had these devices for as long as I did, so when I transferred to the cardiac floor, they had to be in-serviced and my new nurse each shift had to come in and review my device with the previous nurse. What a relief to get rid of that heavy thing! I was in the hospital for 12 days and I've been home for over a week now. Recovery has been an up and down journey like it always is. I was going along ok and even made it out for dinner with my family one night. But I had a side track when I went into Afib and had to go to the ER this weekend, and am now back on yucky amiodarone. I had Afib after my last surgery too. I'm still on diuretics to get the fluids off from surgery. I have pretty bad anemia, despite a blood transfusion, and this will take time to recover from also. My lips and tongue and roof of my mouth still burn, no one knows why, but I sure hope this goes away in time. Pain control has been hard because of balancing low BPs and drug interactions, so only Tylenol for me. Somedays I feel I am doing so well and some days I feel crummy and have a hard time doing much of anything. I haven't felt nearly as good since the Afib started. It isn't well controlled yet and the medication is hard for me to tolerate with my sensitive system so it will be a waiting game while it settles down and the med gets dialed in. It can feel very scary at times and can trigger a lot of anxiety in me. These have truly been some of the hardest months of my life physically and emotionally, from finding out there was a problem with my old valves to the recovery now. But I know in a few months, I will feel much better and I look forward to seeing how much better my heart feels with proper fitting valves. Don’t let this post scare you if you haven’t gone through surgery yet because not many will go through three double valve surgeries. For all of you heart warriors going through a recovery process of your own right now, I am right here with you. And also yay we survived and are on the other side of this thing!! P.S. Me and Dr Castro after surgery