The day of the Surgery
Posted on Wed February 18, 2009 in Open Heart surgery
Views: 384
We arrived at the hospital at 5:30 am. Surprisingly, I wasn’t nervous. I just
wanted to get it over with. The nurses just prep you but setting up your IV,
shaving any hair on your chest or private areas. I met the 4 anesthesiologist
that will be in my surgery, the nurse said I will have a total of 12 people in
the operating room with me. They had to put more IVs into me so I asked them to
do it after I fall asleep. I figured, this will save some pain. They asked me to
count to 10, I remember getting to 7.
I went into surgery at 8am, I
was done by 12:30pm. They took me from the operating room to the ICU after the
surgery and my family was allowed to come see me at 2pm. I was asleep until
4ish. I vaguely remember seeing different family members during the day. I
finally woke up at about 6. The first thought I had when I was conscience was.
I made it! I’m sitting here, I’m alive. I looked around and saw that I was
hooked up to so many machines. I noticed a tube coming out of my gown filled
with blood. I notices another tube filled with yellow fluid. I didn’t feel much
pain. A nurse came by and put an aspirin on my tongue. I was SO thirsty. I don’t
think I’ve ever felt so thirsty in my life but they would not give me water .
They said that since my digestive system was inactive, any substance will make
me vomit and it will hurt. The aspirin numbed my tongue and added more
discomfort. ( be sure to try to swallow it and not just let it dissolve on your
tongue).
I noticed the dressing on my chest, all the tubes, incisions
were neatly secured by bandages. There was a bloody tube was coming out of my
abdomen. It was there to collect extra blood and peritoneal fluid. It drained
into this huge rectangular box that measured how much came out. The yellow tube
was a urinary catheter. The pain was not overwhelming. It was more of an achy
discomfort and I suffered more from the thirst than anything else. I was fed
50mg of phentenol for the pain. The effects of it were instant! It made you feel
like you were floating in air right away! It was a little hard to breathe,
because I felt so much pressure on my chest. I made sure they kept giving me the
pain medications. The absence of pressure and pain made the breathing easier.
I had a very big IV on my neck where all the medications were being fed
into and an oxygen monitor on my finger. My chest was completely numb.
Fortunately I woke up without a breathing tube. They took it out during
the surgery. I also did not have any metal sticks in me
For the rest of
the night, the nurses let me eat ice chips. I had to be careful not to have too
much despite how thirsty I was. I was in no desire to feel nauseous or vomit so
I was very careful about my intake. The nurses were also very careful to not
give me too much pain medication because my blood pressure was very low and the
pain medication makes it worst. They monitored my vitals every hour. They also
turned you every few hours to make sure your blood was circulating and to
prevent clotting.
About me
33 / Female
Member since Jul 2009
Profile Views: 5820
Journal Views: 15053
guru
About Me: living life, one day at a time
Location: San Francisco, CA
Interests: art, eating and sleeping
Funniest medical moment: after heart surgery, while attached to a monitor and high on narcotics, I told a group of 7 doctors that I was planning on "escaping" from the hospital, then I tried to convince all the nurses to install instant messenger on their computers claiming they were too primative and needed a faster way for me to tell them when I need food and more pain meds.
Medical Conditions: endometriosis, mitral valve prolapse, abnormal coronary artery, iscemic cardiac disease
Health Interests: Beauty, Cardiology, Dental Health, Dermatology, Gastroenterology, Health and Food, Nutrition, Pain Management, Stress, Undiagnosed Symptoms, Women's Health
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