When going through a large surgery like mine there are a lot of questions that remain unanswered. For example, "Am I supposed to still be short of breath 3 weeks later?" "Am I supposed to still have pains in my back?" Most of the time the answers to my questions are, "in a week it will feel better, your body just has to get over the shock of surgery." With so many unknowns, I usually go about my day assuming that what I feel is normal.
This past Saturday night, I felt really hot, so I checked my temperature. My temperature had spiked to 103 degrees within a few hours. After making a few phone calls to the nurses and doctors they told me to go into the ER to make sure that there were no infections in my body. After 4 long hours in the ER Saturday night, the surgeon on call told me to go home since my temperature had come back down to normal, but informed me that he would take a look at my chest x-ray when he got in on Sunday and would call me with news. Sunday morning the surgeon called and told me that I had an excess of fluid in my lungs and that he wanted me to come in Monday to drain the fluid. Yesterday I went to the doctors office to get the fluid drained. The surgeon drained almost 2 liters of fluid from just my right lung, crazy! Now we know why I was still short of breath and had some pains in my right side. I don't recommend anyone having their lungs drained, not a comfortable procedure at all! I already feel much better and can almost take in a full deep breath! This is encouraging. We are hoping that the fluid doesn't come back so that I will continue to have a healthy recovery. Now that I can breathe, it's time to start 15 minute walks. I have to be able to walk 30 minutes straight by my next doctor visit, so this will be my new challenge to overcome!
Rise and shine
My bed has wheels!!!
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
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The basics of my surgery:
This August, I was at a check up and my doctor heard a heart murmur and told me to go see a Cardiologist. Over the last 4 weeks, I have been doing multiple procedures to find out exactly what was wrong with my heart and how it could be fixed. After a few procedures, I met with a surgeon in Dallas and it was recommended that I have open heart surgery. I decided that if i needed this procedure, I would rather be in St. Louis with my family to have it done.
Two weeks ago I went for a second opinion in St. Louis. All the doctors that I have met with have confirmed that I need to move forward with open heart surgery. There are no other less-invasive options for the type of surgery I have to do. I will have the surgery done in St. Louis at Missouri Baptist Hospital on October 18th.
The doctor will be performing 2 procedures during the surgery to fix two problems. I technically have an Ascending Aortic Aneurism, which as led to an enlarged aorta. My aorta is 5.1 centimeters, which is double the size of the average aorta. To fix the aorta they will replace the enlarged part with a dacron polyester tube. This will stay in my heart for the rest of my life. Over time the tissue will grow over the new aorta. The second part of the procedure is to fix my valves. My valves are what cause the heart murmur and essentially the cause of the enlarged aorta. Until they open up my heart, they can't determine exactly how they will fix the valves. The first option is to surgically fix them using my current tissue. If that is not an option, they will replace the valves with an animal valve. The surgery will take approximiately 4 hours, then I'll be in recovery at the hospital for about 5 days before I am able to go home and rest for about 6 weeks.
To answer a few questions:
Did I know about this? No, I did not know until a little over a month ago that anything was wrong. I knew when I was young that I had a heart murmur, but over the years Cardiologists have told me nothing was wrong.
Do I feel okay? Yes, I still feel like my normal self. There were no indications that I had anything wrong, other than the doctor first hearing my murmur.
Will I be able to resume normal activity post surgery? Yes, after a few weeks of recovery I should be able to resume my normal activities. It may just take a while to feel comfortable playing sports for a while.
Thanks for everyone for your thoughts and prayers. It means a lot to my family to have so many people supporting us, we can't thank you enough!
If anyone is around St. Louis, feel free to stop by! Visitors are welcome!
Do it!
ReplyDeleteKristen! How do you look that beautiful coming out of surgery!! Great picture of you with your family. I'm so glad they took care of the fluid, 2 liters is crazy! I'll continue to pray for your speedy recovery. Be strong!
ReplyDeleteYay Nelson! I'm so proud of you! I can't wait to see you soon!
ReplyDeleteKristen, yep that's a lot of fluid. Now that's behind you, onward with the walking challenge. Edgar and I will try to shadow your walking regiment, maybe. When's your next doctor's visit? Hopefully we have enough time to get up to speed. We continue to hold you in prayer. The Lord be with you....
ReplyDeleteso glad to hear things are going so well! we miss you here in Dallas! you are a stud and will come out of this stronger than you went in. which is a scary thought for all of us! ha! keep the updates coming!
ReplyDelete