Living Life to the Full

[Dickyticker26]

It is now 8 weeks since my triple by pass operation and I was told by St Thomas' at the post-op check-up that the surgical wounds are healed, and they are signing me out as a patient leaving me to resume the same level of activity as I enjoyed before the operation

My recovery notes say that I can now drive which I haven't tried yet, and that I have completed 6 weeks at home "taking it easy" and I should be walking 30 minutes a day 5 days a week and can return to "light work"

I am now entering the 8-12 weeks period for a "full recovery" after which I can undertake "heavy physical work"

Unfortunately my body is telling me that things are not going to happen that quickly

The numbness in my chest is almost gone and has been replaced by extreme sensitivity -fortunately thanks to E45 the leg wound is ok

The best I can manage is the 30 minutes walking and routine domestic chores , but I am "finished" after 2/3 hours on the go

I still go running off to the Clinical Nurse Specialist at the hospital for comforting and she assures me that the sensitivity will settle down in the course of the next 2 weeks though the sternum can take up to 6 months to heal completely

It certainly brings home the extent to which we have to rely on the human body's ability to heal itself and I have to go back to watching "The Saint" "The Professionals" "The Persuaders" "The Avengers" "The A Team" "Remington Steele" "the Sweeney" "Kojak" "Midsomer Murders" "The Prisoner" "Rumpole of the Bailey" "Colombo" "T J Hooker" "The Man from Uncle" "Mission Impossible" "Magnum PI" and at the same time avoid tragedy and violence on the news and advertisements showing ill-treatment and suffering of animals and children

I think that the sky-diving and marathons will have to wait a bit!

[Adrian1949]

Hi there. I was lucky and got away with stents, but I was advised to go to rehab classes at our local leisure centre with NHS staff. It was gentle exercise (to start with) but I did see people who had had bypass surgery. Due to all that had been dine to them their recovery was a longer slower road than mine. Make sure you get referred to rehab classes, do what they tell you, then when finally discharged by them keep going to the gym at you local leisure centre and keep up the fitness regime that you have been taught. Your level of personal achievement will increase steadily, but getting fully fit and physically recovered is going to take months not weeks. At least a year.

[Dickyticker26 in reply to Adrian1949]

Many thanks for your response and good ideas-I will keep at it!

[SteveP772]

I’m at 8 months post quad bypass here in the US and the skin on my left chest is still numb. And my chest scar took a month longer than yours to close fully.

From what I’ve heard from other people after open heart surgery my experience is more typical than yours. It sounds like you’re doing quite well. St. Thomas was incredibly optimistic when you went home. I was told not to drive for six weeks at least and to not lift anything over 7 pounds (about 15kg) for the following two months. Please take it at the pace that suits you.

The cardiac rehab suggestion would be good advice to heed, and the 30 minutes walking each day or at least a few times a week really helps. Take it slow. When they crack your chest open as they did, it’s like getting hit by a truck.

[Dickyticker26 in reply to SteveP772]

Many thanks for your response!

One of the circulating ward doctors at St Thomas' told me that the body had received a "massive insult" in the procedure and needed time to recover-though at the time they were a lot keener than my wife to get me back home

I am now in week 9 since the operation which I believe is something of a "changer"

My chest is "done up like a kipper" with just a red line down the middle and I have a dentist appointment this morning when I can bore them with all the details-I must tell the dentist not to lean with his elbow on my chest!

I wake up thinking I am perfectly ok then get "reminders" during the day by way of sudden pain or fatigue but I am trying to get off "regular" pain-killers and just take them when really needed

One of my wife's many Peruvian cousins is a nurse in the Presbyterian Hospital in Madison Avenue in Manhattan and looks after up to 100 patients awaiting heart transplants so we get advice and support over the phone-principally to be careful when bending down! She says that they do more transplants on the West Coast

Otherwise I still get periods of blurred vision and the scars from the 3 drain holes in my stomach are still evident and a bit sore but sensitivity in my chest seems a lot better

When I came round in Intensive Care I was in a weird parallel world in Delirium caused by Fentanyl which I believe can be up to 100 times stronger than morphine

I was telling my visitors that I was in USA or Canada and really believed that I was-the "feeling" still hangs around although the delusions left after I was moved into the open ward

My daytime nurse was Canadian and was very kind saying that she was there to look after me and help me to get better

And so it goes on...