Tips for caring for a patient after heart operation.

[KANR]

My husband had his ascending aorta replaced nearly three weeks ago. I have made a list of the things that were important to him/me when in hospital and afterwards. Hopefully will be of use to a few people:

3m long mobile phone charging lead - the distance from the ward plugs and bed can be much longer than an average charging lead

Take a photocopy/photograph on phone of discharge notes - after a slight relapse my husband ended back in a different hospital for a couple of days. It was useful to be able to have to hand a spare copy of his notes.

Keep all medical letters and results in a folder and carry with you - as above, after a post op stay in a different hospital the cardiologists wanted access to all prior results. Having it all in date order in a file made it much easier to have to hand.

Pack a ‘just in case’ bag after the operation with medical notes and medication to hand - we needed it!

Bring a pillow for journey home to help keep the seatbelt away from wounds.

Peppermint sweets to suck on - helps with the sickness after the operation. My husband liked the Smints version

Noise cancelling headphones - the wards are busy and noisy! A personal choice of my husband’s. Other people might want ear plugs

Sleep eye mask - blocks some light out if napping during the day.

Plenty of change for the car park

Get ward phone numbers and extension to avoid main reception waiting times or voice recognition software which doesn’t work (Harefield!)

Write one text with updates and copy and paste to friends and relatives.

Carry your phone charger as a visitor as you can spend a lot of time sitting around waiting. And bring a book

V shaped pillow for when they come home

Fizzy drink to bring up wind - a personal request from my husband to get rid of the inevitable post operation gas build up

Fit bit or step counter pedometer for patient to build up walking

Antibacterial hand wash at home and in handbag

Good opportunity to get rid of read books so donate to hospital book store/library. I brought in a load on day of discharge.

A personal choice but a box of chocolates for the staff on the ward is always appreciated.

Google a photo image of ‘Remember to breathe’ and put on phone as wallpaper and home screen. You will be given breathing exercises. This will be a reminder.

Couple of larger than normal T-shirts as easier to get on and off with post op wounds

A personal thing that worked for us was I made a photo blanket via Bags of Love (just google photo blanket and I am sure there are lots of companies that can make them). It had about 35 photos of family to show support towards my husband and to serve as a boost for him when alone. My husband had that with him when he moved onto the ward and was a good talking point for visitors, doctors and nurses. I got a second one made for my husband’s parents who were stressing about the operation and it was good for them to feel closeness to their son whilst he was in hospital. It might be good for younger children as well to have something like that if their parent is in hospital and they are too young to visit.

A small pillow/rolled towel for helping with coughing and sneezing.

Write out medication into a table that makes it easy for you to use. Sometimes the amount of medication will be overwhelming and putting all the information into one table with medication name, dosage, timings, with or without food etc.

Plenty of patience! I am running out 3 weeks post operation ;).

[Chappychap]

"Noise cancelling headphones - the wards are busy and noisy!"

I've heard it said that there are only three types of people who can truly relax on a hospital ward. Someone who was in the military, someone who went to a boarding school, or someone who has served a custodial prison sentence.

I have to admit I felt right at home on a ward and I can tick one of those boxes...but I shan't say which one!

[BicuspidBob]

Brilliant (helpful!) list. 👌🏼 Thank you 🙂

[Calliope153]

Thank you for this. I am going to find out about the photo blanket as it would be a comfort to a 90year old aunt with Alzheimer's too. Take care.

[Janma123]

What a great list! My hubby had two monthlong spells in hospital last year and I can relate to everything.

I still pack a ‘hospital bag’ everywhere we go as I had amassed everything during his first month in hospital following his HA and bypass operation. We were away for the weekend 9weeks later, having been given the ‘good to go, don’t need to see you again’ from cardiologist and he had a stroke! Luckily there was a Tesco just down the road and I bought more! The bag now goes with us along with all his tablets and discharge info.

Hope you husband is doing well.

[Cliff_G]

That's a fantastic list! Yes, I needed my ready-packed bag twice after my (unplanned!) aortic op. How is hubby doing now?

[KANR in reply to Cliff_G]

Thank you for asking - he is doing really well. Still a bit sore at times across his chest from the operation, only 3 weeks ago, but sleeping and eating well. He is starting to go back to work as he can work from home for some of his job so will build up his time across the next couple of weeks and then see how he feels about going into the office in London. I suspect he won’t want to be trying that journey through rush hour on the tube so will probably go in late and leave early for a bit.

All in all I think he feels better than he thought he was going to. He had a mini sternotomy so I think healing will be more straightforward and being only 48 and very fit probably helps him too.

Best wishes.

[Cliff_G in reply to KANR]

Great. One thing I learned was - take things easy and make sure he doesn't do too much. Best to stop whilst you're still feeling OK, (not when you get tired) then check the after effects for a day or two. Then repeat, but only ramp up activity (to the next small increase) once you're sure the last level was manageable. Mistake I made was to think I was doing fine, then do too much and get knocked off my progress. OK, mine was an emergency and a huge op, but the op was Dec 2017, and I made good progress up to June 2018 and felt I was doing well, then it all went downhill for the next 6 months until I got the ramping up thing sorted.

[Nic25]

Great list KANR and sure lots of people are going to find it helpful. Good luck with the recovery and hope you continue to improve. Look after yourself. Nic x

[Gazza01]

Hi. Sorry for resurrection of this thread but a couple of things to watch out for. At around the 3 to 4 month period many patients start to have either panic or depression. In fact between 50-75 %. It's called adjustment disorder and it's so common that most hospital cardiac wards have a psychologist attached for this reason. It's basically trauma that the mind holds back until you start to feel physically strong, then Wham. It lets you have and It can knock you for six.

The other thing is to ask him to get a blood count done.

Believe it or not it doesn't get checked. So after a couple of months you still feel tired. When actually you are anemic from the blood loss. They put me on iron tabs for a month and I was fine after that. Worth getting the blood count check anyway just to be sure.

The whole thing about being back to normal at 3 months is just wrong. It's actually more like 10 months to a year. And make sure he does some cardio for ever now. Every month of cardio brings the heart rate down by one point. Lots more benefits too including making that strong pounding heart go nice and quite again.

Lastly. He will be left on tablets he doesn't need if he doesn't fight to get off them. So when the time comes get the GP to contact the cardiologist and ask if he can drop some of the drugs. Especially beta blockers, which he'll need to wean off very gradually. All that will be a while yet. Good luck.