Hi all. While it's great to see the replies and information here, I have noticed that some questions are "medical" - do we not have access to a nurse/ doctor, pre and post op?
Also, I noticed someone the other day saying she was going in for her op, "waiting for the hospital car". Is this usual?
When do we get told this sort of stuff?
Hello,
Pre op your cardiologist will hand your care over to your surgeon, before your op you will have pre op tests done. After surgery there will a post op check with your surgeon this is normally at 6 weeks discharged back to your cardiologist had mine at 6 months after surgery then all being well discharged back to your GP. As well as this you will have cardio rehab after surgery and I saw the nurse there twice a week, though this was pre COVID-19.
As for hospital car, I know who you are talking about, don’t think it’s the every day thing, think it depends on your circumstances.
When you go for your pre operation assessment you are normally talked through what will happen, I was given a booklet and a video to watch. I would say to you just follow all the instructions you will be given by the cardio physios as to how to make sure your recovery goes well.
Hope that helps somewhat.
Best wishes Pauline
Hi PaulineThank you for that. I am hoping to get some answers from my surgeon when I meet him next month.
I will certainly do my best to follow all instructions .
It’s the normal no arms above your head no lifting anything heavier than half a kettle of water no pulling or pushing movements. The breathing exercises you will be given in hospital along with the coughing one you need to keep doing them when you get home, remember your lungs are collapsed when we are on bypass so they need help getting all those little pockets filled out again. It’s baby steps when you get home.
Pauline
I didn't realise about filling the pockets in the lungs, but now that you say that, it makes a lot of sense.😀
There are volunteer drivers who pick up hospital patients and take them to their appointments. This frees up the ambulances for stretcher cases and emergencies.
Hospital transport is available for anyone who can't walk. I've been taken to a hospital in Manchester by a volunteer driver and back by a suicidal maniac of a taxi driver; sometimes it's been a mini bus going on a roundabout route picking up people as they go. However its' been cut drastically from about 2 years ago although I have been brought home by hospital taxi from A&E after being taken in by ambulance.
Hello 
Pauline has answered your question perfectly as she always does in her replies
I do know regarding transport maybe not everywhere you live but lot's of Hospitals if you have no transport and no one to take you to Hospital like family or friends and you let them know they will arrange transport for you x
Thanks. I think all of the unknowns at the moment are multiplying my anxieties. I find the replies to a lot of other people's queries very helpful.😀
Hello
I totally understand it is always the unknowns that feed our anxieties the most
6 weeks ago I had a triple Bypass and been able to come on here ask questions get some reassurance has helped me so much to
I wish you all the best with your surgery I know how frightening the prospect seems but honestly once you are there the Nurses put you at ease and before you know it you will be recovering and realising it was not as bad as your thoughts were making you believe it would be x
My in-laws lived in a remote village, and when he retired, my FiL used to act as a volunteer driver to get people to appointments. It depends where you live, I suppose.I hope all goes well for you.
The reason a lot of the questions are "medical" is that heart issues are so complex, so little understood and so unique (in many ways) to each of us, that it's worth asking for a little reassurance, a second opinion, or even just someone's personal experience.
If you've had heart issues long enough, after a few trips to the ER and through the cardiac care mill, you soon realize that no one doctor has the magic key to "curing" them. I've gotten conflicting information within 2 days about the same issue more than once. So take "medical" advice here with a grain of salt but don't discount its worth. After all, YOU know your body the best.
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