Sher's Posts

Update on my recovery: My surgery was April 10th. About 6.5 hr surgery. I was out of surgery and in ICU around 8 pm that night and apparently my family was able to see me at 9 pm. I don't remember anything really until the late afternoon of the 11th. It took quite awhile for me to come to. My breathing tube finally came out the evening of April 11th. My BPs were very soft and oxygen levels really low. They put me on a CPAP machine the evening of the 11th to try and get my oxygen level up (I have a very big appreciation for anyone that needs to use one). I honestly thought it was Monday on Saturday. I was pretty mixed up. I was in ICU for 4 days and then moved into my first cardiac step down room. Unfortunately I got a UTI from the bladder catheter because it just kept backing up. I put on about 25 lbs of edema. I was on pill form of lasix because my surgeon was worried about my BP and oxygen levels. After 2 days of agony for the UTI and the culture to come back, I was finally put on an antibiotic. If you've ever had an UTI and on lasix you know its not much fun peeing (sorry for being so graphic). Once the antibiotics kicked in it was much better. With edema in my legs, ankles and feet, and low oxygen, walking was difficult for I was determined to move, do my breathing exercises because I knew that was the way to improve. Over the 2 weeks, I was moved to 2 other step down rooms. I was hoping to get out of the hospital in 5 or 6 days not 2 weeks but such is life. Better to be where I was working with physio and respiratory therapists and if something went wrong a team was there to make sure to help. Sleep is hard in the hospital so I was happy when they let me go home with some pretty strict rules to work on walking and breathing exercises. I've had a hard time doing social media because I am exhausted. More on that on my next post. Progressing slowly but I am progressing.

Today I had my final labs done and my blood cross and type match band put on for surgery in Thursday April 10 th. First technician was having a problem getting my blood to flow but the second one got it in real quick. A bit of a pin cushion today but I suspect I’ll have a whole lot more pokes on Thursday. It is getting pretty real now and I have to stay busy so that I don’t focus too much of what Thursday will bring. My house is getting spring cleaned by a company tomorrow…I know it’s crazy but I just want to go into surgery knowing my house is really clean . My son gets home from work rotation tomorrow and I am feeling better knowing he will be here too. I hope everyone is starting to get excited about Spring (a renewal as such) and I for one will be happy when this is behind me.

A lot has been going on since I last updated my journal and today I wanted to share where I'm at in my Heart Journey. After Mom and Dad passed in July 2023, I had an enormous amount of work to do as executrix with their estate. I am still working on it but it's now mostly income tax stuff and still paper and photos to go through. I love my Dad but he literally kept everything and I think every income tax he did since the 1940's. Interesting to go through everything but so time consuming and many sad and happy moments while doing so. I decided after Mom and Dads Celebration of Life to start looking into getting a second opinion from my first surgeon. The hard part was believing my heart aneurysm was that much of an issue yet and that I felt so good. There isn't a great system to find another surgeon to get the second opinion. After watching a presentation by Dr. Kevin Hodges and Dr. Patrick McCarthy of Northwestern in Chicago I sent a note off to Dr. Hodges for a second opinion. I started the process to fill out the many forms Northwestern required and I sent over my lab data and CTScan and MRI results/pictures. Unfortunately they wanted the actual pictures so I had to go back to our medical system to try and get there admins at Northwestern to have access to the data. They were having a problem with our platforms and were timed out of our system for security reasons. The admins were going to get their IT specialists to access the data but at the time I was just waiting for another CTScan so we were going to wait until that was done so they had the latest information. CTSCan was scheduled for October 2024. I live in Calgary Alberta Canada so going to the US for an opinion and possible surgery I would have to pay for it myself. In the meantime, I saw something about the South Health Campus Complex Aorta Program here in Calgary and my husband's vascular surgeon and our friend (we live in the same City and our kids went to school together) Dr. Randy Moore is a team member on the program. I asked my GP since I know Randy to see if she could refer me to the Complex Aorta Program. Only people with complex aorta surgeries are admitted to this program. My husband and I met with Dr. Moore (he's a vascular surgeon that worked on my husbands leg blood clot), Dr. Robert Scott McClure (Cardiac Surgeon), RN, other doctors top talk about by heart issues. They would not let me leave unless I agreed to surgery because of my size and my aorta size. This started a a whole bunch of more lab testing, the CTSCan and TEE (Transesophageal Echo). Some interesting things came out of the TEE including a PFO with left to right shunt and a hypermobile septum. So far it looks like the valves are okay and do not need to be fixed. I do not have my surgery date yet but was told as soon as I have the pre-admission clinic that I would get a call with my surgical date. They originally said surgery late February once pre-admission clearance. The have to give me 14 days notice to stop certain things 14 days prior to surgery. On Monday I have all my surgery labs done and on Tuesday February 11th I was at the pre-admission clinic for the afternoon going over everything, meeting the anethesiologist and nurses etc. What a great anesthesiologist. He took the time to explain everything and answer my bazillion questions. I felt much better after that. Anxiety has been higher but my coach has given me mobility exercises to help with that along with my training program. I still train and lift weights but everything is controlled. If I experience any symptons I have a direct line to call. S