Last time I visited this site, I was waiting to undergo an op for an AVR and Triple Bypass.
My Surgeon, Mr Singh of Basildon Hospital CTC fame, pulled off a miracle - instead of replacing my 3 leaf 'Mercedes' valve with tissue or metal - he remodelled the whole chamber that goes with said valve and left me with my still fully functioning 3 leaf valve pumping away as nature intended it.
My operation lasted 11 hours and was considered a complete success.
However, anyone who has had a heart op will know there are a couple of clauses warning of stroke or death – and I was the lucky recipient of a stroke. Not just any stroke - a stroke that left me fighting for my life for 5 weeks (approx.) in ITU.
I am told I received use of the paddles on multiple occasions and my wife and children were called to say their goodbyes on one occasion.
When, finally, I was considered as stable and moved to a recovery ward I could not talk, could not walk and could not swallow. In fact, I was just a living body with a working heart and mind. Even moving my hands or arms was near impossible, and several weeks of my life had passed with me totally unconscious. I had lived an alternate life through anaesthetically based delirium in which I got to spend 2 weeks in Hong Kong with my wife – so not all bad.
When I did finally start to become lucid, I had to undergo an intensive program of therapy to get me working again – and this document is a statement that I am working again, although nowhere as fluently as I previously worked.
I can now eat solids, I can talk to most people in a manner that can be understand, I can walk and traverse stairs like a Gerry Anderson puppet and I am back home under the care of my ever-loving wife and some District Nurses.
But most of all…
I AM ALIVE!!! I SURVIVED!!!
So don’t be afraid of that op – you will be in the hands of people who really go beyond the extra mile to make sure all goes well and you come out of the other side to a better life. Not just the surgeon, by the surgical team, the ITU Nurses, the Recovery Ward Nurses – they all want the same thing – to discharge that patient to a happier healthier life.
So sorry to read your post and what an awful time you have had. I wish you so much better health on your journey back from your stroke. As you say you are still here and fighting and that’s fantastic.
My husband had a stroke 5 weeks after my surgery and I know what a journey you have in front of you,
I send you best wishes to you and your family keep getting stronger and it’s onward and upwards
It's tough when you encounter complications during a bypass, and it requires a lot of courage to share your story.
But judging from your post it seems you're built from the right stuff, and you recognise that the greatest success is waking up each morning and feeling that glorious, ineffable thrill of actually being alive.
If ever you need a pick me up this is the one to read. It defines human endeavour of both the patient in his desire to recover and the efforts of a medical team to enable recovery. It is also a reminder of how amazing our body is. Im so impressed by your recovery and hope it will inspire others to not give up but work with their medical teams to recover as much function as possible.
Wishing you all the best for your continued recovery. My goodness - you’ve really “been through the mill”, as they say, though your resilience and sense of humour shines through. 👍🏼
What an amazing story so far. You’re an inspiration. Thank you for sharing.
Wishing you all the very best.
Thanks you all for your warm and positive comments.
I am glad my post has been recieved in the vein it was intended - heart surgery is not like buying a tin of peas, but having experienced it, i can see how people can think that way.
It may be an age thing but I don't get the "its not like buying a tin of Peas" analogy!
is this like saying a tin of peas is a tin of peas so your just getting peas which are all the same as opposed to Heart attacks which are all different??
I think what Brad was saying is that when we go in for open heart surgery ( not heart attack) we are all a bit different, we are told of the risks even though the odds against us having a problem is very low. He was very unlucky to have suffered a large stroke. So it’s not a case of a one size fits all. Example buying a tin of peas.
Wow, thank you for your update. It’s truly uplifting and humbling to read your story. Like my late father used to say, ‘there is always someone worse of than yourself’. You clearly have the right mental focus to continue onwards and upwards. Good luck with your progress.
An inspiring story! You and your family have been on some journey!
My hubby had a quadruple bypass in April 2018 which went well and he was recovering well. After his 8 week checkup with the surgeon he was taken off his medication for Afib and the anticoagulant to just take low doses of Ramipril, Atenolol and Atorvastin and a wee aspirin. Nine days later he had a stroke! Fortunately his was ‘small but significant’ as it affected his sight, speech, memory and understanding. He could still walk and eat. He spent a month in a stroke rehab unit and his speech and some of his memory returned, although his still has a degree of aphasia.
His goal after his heart surgery was to be fit enough to drive a combine for the spring barley harvest in September and he decided in July that he might still manage although at that point he had very little peripheral vision on the right.
Harvest was early and one afternoon in mid August he decided to have a go! Initially he couldn’t remember how to make it move - everything else was running but with me in the ‘jockey seat’ he worked it out and managed fine. Same happened when he came to stop - but one reminder of the sequence was enough.
His eyes were tested in mid September, something he was dreading as being able to drive depended on his eyes working, and we were amazed that his vision was up to driving standard. We think that operating the combine and watching the crop going in was the trigger to mend his visual field.
He now does some hedge cutting in the winter months but still gets very tired.
His favourite responses to folk are ‘I’m still here’ or ‘Well I woke up and dressed myself this morning!’
Loved reading your story, 5 weeks after my surgery my husband had a stroke, he lost his peripheral vision along with left leg and arm. It’s been 4 years and our life is completely different but he’s still here and so am I 😉
Oh boy, you really have jolted my memory. I had the stroke first then AVR later.
Basildon was closed when I needed the AVR, so pleased to hear they are now firing on all cylinders. Colchester looked after me for the stroke and they are the bees knees.
I guess we can both say that we missed out on a part of the pandemic.
But those nightmares, well I am still not sure what was real and what was dreams. Memory after stroke was a big issue, then I get a similar thing post AVR. Memory has fallen back somewhat.
Yes indeed we are both alive. We are chosen to survive when many do not.
I still recall the paddles and I was thinking "will that hurt" then my life whizzed before me and I thought how much I need to put right. I was back in a flash.
No paddles after the AVR but it got exciting. No life flashing by, I just thought, I dont want to die here (I was in Knightsbridge) and I cant recall what happened next.
I didnt have the mercedes leaflets. Just two (ford escort perhaps) Interesting that this never showed up until the operation. Congenital defect, now gone.
The stroke association have excellent booklets on stroke.
I am just amazed at your story and thank you so much for sharing.
You have the best attitude and I promise you that makes a big difference.
I have just baked a cake, and weeded a bit of garden. I also drove wife to Tescos. So I can confirm that things will improve. Heart op recovery is faster, stroke recovery is slower.
hi brand thanks for coming back and filling us in. i am 13 days after the same opp and at home alone and it does feel a bit like being in the unknown as to what happens next. good to hear you came though .. x
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