So things have been going well with the ol' ticker. So I'm thinking since I have a heart that works I might as well use it. Why not a triathlon? I mean it doesn't have to be a full Ironman, but maybe someday.
I meet with my Dr. next week and I'm hoping he might lift the heart rate limit or at least raise it above 160. Then it's on! If I can make it through an open heart surgery why can't I run a triathalon?
Stay posted...more to come!
- Posted from my interpersonal communication device
Thursday, June 3, 2010
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Back to Work
Things just keep getting better and better. Finally started back to work last week. It's great to be out of the house but getting back in the swing of things at work is proving to be a bit harder than I thought. You don't realize how much really happens in the month that you are gone. Other than the actual work part of WORK I love being back. I can't express how incredible the people I work with are. The love and support they have shown me really is amazing. Big Ups to the entire K2 crew for everything they have done for me.
Finally got to start Cardiac Therapy as well. It's great to be able to move and exercise some. I get to spend 15 minutes on a treadmill, walking of course, and 15 minutes on a stationary bike. There are a few other exercises in between. For now it is all pretty moderate but they promise me we will continue to ramp it up. I told the Dr. that i want to try and run the 5k at work on May 10th for the Shape up the Nation program and he seemed to think that was doable. For sure I can walk it but i want to at least jog. 3.1 miles isn't really that far. I have a few weeks to get ready and I think I can do it.
Other than that life is looking up. Things are getting better everyday and starting to get back to normal. That's all for now but I will be sure to try and update this sometime next week.
See ya
Finally got to start Cardiac Therapy as well. It's great to be able to move and exercise some. I get to spend 15 minutes on a treadmill, walking of course, and 15 minutes on a stationary bike. There are a few other exercises in between. For now it is all pretty moderate but they promise me we will continue to ramp it up. I told the Dr. that i want to try and run the 5k at work on May 10th for the Shape up the Nation program and he seemed to think that was doable. For sure I can walk it but i want to at least jog. 3.1 miles isn't really that far. I have a few weeks to get ready and I think I can do it.
Other than that life is looking up. Things are getting better everyday and starting to get back to normal. That's all for now but I will be sure to try and update this sometime next week.
See ya
Monday, April 12, 2010
Pictures Please
Hey everyone. Some people had been asking to see the pics of me in the hospital so here you go. Fair warning....I look like death in some of these. There not all pretty. Lots of tubes and wires hanging out of me. So if things like this are tough on your stomace you may not want to look ahead. Just remember as bad as some of these look....I'm doing great now. :)
This was pre-op. I was loving the super rad blow up suite they had me wear!
This was me right after surgery. I had more stuff hanging from me than you can imagine. At least by now my hands weren't tied to the bed anymore.
Here's the post-op head shot. My agent loves this one. That yellow thing going into my neck was actually a device that went through my artery directly into my heart to measure the blood pressure inside my heart. CRAZY!
Here's me with the first nurse I had. His name is Darren. He was pretty much rad. Luckily i got to meet him again after my first day in the hospital cause honestly I don't remember ever taking this picture.
Finally they let me eat. I have some super sweet pudding in my left hand there. That was the first food of any kind that I had in the last 16 hours probably. Best pudding ever at that point.
Here I am a few days after surgery. Starting to look a bit more normal with a few less tubes and wires hanging out of me. That's Cat next to me. She is my surgeons head nurse. She kinda runs the show. Don't mess with Cat.
This was pre-op. I was loving the super rad blow up suite they had me wear!
This was me right after surgery. I had more stuff hanging from me than you can imagine. At least by now my hands weren't tied to the bed anymore.
Here's the post-op head shot. My agent loves this one. That yellow thing going into my neck was actually a device that went through my artery directly into my heart to measure the blood pressure inside my heart. CRAZY!
Here's me with the first nurse I had. His name is Darren. He was pretty much rad. Luckily i got to meet him again after my first day in the hospital cause honestly I don't remember ever taking this picture.
Finally they let me eat. I have some super sweet pudding in my left hand there. That was the first food of any kind that I had in the last 16 hours probably. Best pudding ever at that point.
Here I am a few days after surgery. Starting to look a bit more normal with a few less tubes and wires hanging out of me. That's Cat next to me. She is my surgeons head nurse. She kinda runs the show. Don't mess with Cat.Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Been good!! Finally
Hey everyone....sorry I haven't posted anything in a while. I think the Dr. appointments have slowed and things have been going well for the first time in a while and there's not a whole lot to talk about.
I had a couple of appointments last week. I met with my surgeon Dr. Luber for the last time. He said everything was looking good and he was happy with my progress. They let me start to drive again as well. I am a free man! It's so nice being able to get out of the house and not just be stuck in front of the TV all day. Besides letting be drive they did take some x-rays of my lungs and there is still some fluid around my left lung but nothing like it was last time. No one really seemed to worried about it. The Dr just wants me to take another x-ray next week to make sure it hasn't become worse.
After I saw Dr. Luber I went to see Dr. Bilnoski, my cardiologist, for a follow up. It was the first time I had seen him since my surgery. He did an EKG and an echo. They wanted to make sure there wasn't any more fluid around my heart, which thank goodness, there wasn't. He also increased the dosage of my beta blocker to try and slow my heart down. My pulse has still been pretty high, which isn't all that uncommon but its not a great thing either.
Other than that things have been going pretty well. Still going to the anti coagulation clinic twice a week trying to get my warfarin levels dialed in. Healing has been going well too. Starting to feel better everyday. There is still some fatigue but that will go away over time. Also I am starting Cardiac Therapy tomorrow. I was supposed to start last week but the hospital canceled on me and rescheduled. The therapy should be good. They will help me get my heart and lungs going again but in a safe and monitored manner. I am looking forward to that!
That's all for now....
I had a couple of appointments last week. I met with my surgeon Dr. Luber for the last time. He said everything was looking good and he was happy with my progress. They let me start to drive again as well. I am a free man! It's so nice being able to get out of the house and not just be stuck in front of the TV all day. Besides letting be drive they did take some x-rays of my lungs and there is still some fluid around my left lung but nothing like it was last time. No one really seemed to worried about it. The Dr just wants me to take another x-ray next week to make sure it hasn't become worse.
After I saw Dr. Luber I went to see Dr. Bilnoski, my cardiologist, for a follow up. It was the first time I had seen him since my surgery. He did an EKG and an echo. They wanted to make sure there wasn't any more fluid around my heart, which thank goodness, there wasn't. He also increased the dosage of my beta blocker to try and slow my heart down. My pulse has still been pretty high, which isn't all that uncommon but its not a great thing either.
Other than that things have been going pretty well. Still going to the anti coagulation clinic twice a week trying to get my warfarin levels dialed in. Healing has been going well too. Starting to feel better everyday. There is still some fatigue but that will go away over time. Also I am starting Cardiac Therapy tomorrow. I was supposed to start last week but the hospital canceled on me and rescheduled. The therapy should be good. They will help me get my heart and lungs going again but in a safe and monitored manner. I am looking forward to that!
That's all for now....
Friday, March 26, 2010
That sucked....literally
So....headed back to the hospital today. They wanted to drain the fluid from around my lung. I headed in at 12:45 for a 1:00 appointment. After waiting for half an hour and watching two pregnant ladies come and go I headed to the lab to get blood drawn. They needed to check my INR and make sure it was at or below 1.5. Of course it took forty minutes to get the results back. We headed down to radiology, where they were going to do the procedure to wait. After about an hour they came back with my results and sure enough my INR was 1.5 on the nose. It was game time.
They took me back into the room with the ultrasound. They use the ultrasound to see where the fluid is and to guide the giant needle into my back. I was sitting up on the edge of the bed with my arms resting on a table. The doctor was behind me and telling me what was going on. After he did a cursory check with ultrasound to see where he was aiming things started to get fun. First he took a lidocaine needle that was described to me later as "not that bad" and ran it around a couple inch circle to numb everything. The doctor described it as a pinch and burn. It definitely pinched and burrrrrned for a few minutes. Once everything was numb things were much better. Now that he was done with the lidocaine he took a second needle that was around five inches long and ran it into my back into the fluid sack around my lung. He then hooked a hose to the needle and put the end of the hose into a bottle that was vacuum sealed so that it would suck the evil liquid from my body. And boy did it suck. After probably only a minute or so it really started to hurt. It started to hurt because there was no fluid left for it to suck and it felt like it was trying to suck me through the needle. So they pulled the huge, giant needle from my back and all i got to show for the whole deal was a little band aid. They did show me the fluid afterwards. It was something like 650 ml. Over half a liter. Think of a one liter soda bottle half full. That all came out of me. It's crazy to look at. You wonder where in the hell there was room for all that.
Things are pretty much back to normal now. After the whole deal I was a little sore while my lung tried to expand into the new space. Feels like a knot inside your back. Not a knot in the muscle but deeper than that. My back is still pretty tight but that should go away soon. Just one more adventure in what is becoming a long list of trips to St. Joes.
Hopefully that is the last trip I have to make besides follow up appointments and cardiac therapy that starts next week. They say it's not all that uncommon to have to be drained more than once but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be a one and done patient.
They took me back into the room with the ultrasound. They use the ultrasound to see where the fluid is and to guide the giant needle into my back. I was sitting up on the edge of the bed with my arms resting on a table. The doctor was behind me and telling me what was going on. After he did a cursory check with ultrasound to see where he was aiming things started to get fun. First he took a lidocaine needle that was described to me later as "not that bad" and ran it around a couple inch circle to numb everything. The doctor described it as a pinch and burn. It definitely pinched and burrrrrned for a few minutes. Once everything was numb things were much better. Now that he was done with the lidocaine he took a second needle that was around five inches long and ran it into my back into the fluid sack around my lung. He then hooked a hose to the needle and put the end of the hose into a bottle that was vacuum sealed so that it would suck the evil liquid from my body. And boy did it suck. After probably only a minute or so it really started to hurt. It started to hurt because there was no fluid left for it to suck and it felt like it was trying to suck me through the needle. So they pulled the huge, giant needle from my back and all i got to show for the whole deal was a little band aid. They did show me the fluid afterwards. It was something like 650 ml. Over half a liter. Think of a one liter soda bottle half full. That all came out of me. It's crazy to look at. You wonder where in the hell there was room for all that.
Things are pretty much back to normal now. After the whole deal I was a little sore while my lung tried to expand into the new space. Feels like a knot inside your back. Not a knot in the muscle but deeper than that. My back is still pretty tight but that should go away soon. Just one more adventure in what is becoming a long list of trips to St. Joes.
Hopefully that is the last trip I have to make besides follow up appointments and cardiac therapy that starts next week. They say it's not all that uncommon to have to be drained more than once but I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be a one and done patient.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
And the hits just keep on comin....
So here we go again. Back to the hospital. I Was hanging out enjoying the sun yesterday and all of a sudden I started draining fluid from one of my chest tube holes. I couldn't believe how much fluid I was losing. I hadn't even been bleeding, the incision was starting to heal and then wham fluid everywhere. It drained so much I went through three huge gauze pads and all the way threw a towel that was folded over twice. Luckily I wasn't bleeding it was just clear liquid. So we headed back to the surgeons office and took some chest x-rays and sure enough I have something like 500 ml of fluid around my lung again. Ahhhhhhhhhh!!! I just want to get better. All these little setbacks are becoming frustrating.
Anyways in order to get the fluid out they told me to stop taking my Warfarin so that my blood will clot better. I have to get my INR down to 1.5 which will probably take until tomorrow. Today it was at 1.8 so I should be able to get it down. The plan right now is to head into the hospital tomorrow at 1:00. They will run some labs to make sure that everything is in order. Then they will stick a big 'ol needle in my back and drain the extra fluid out. They will do it all while looking at an ultra sound machine so that they can hit the fluid sack and not something else. Hopefully once they drain this fluid my body will stop producing more fluid.
I wish I knew why this was happening. All the doctors say there really is nothing I can do about it. It just happens. It's not all that uncommon. Some people's bodies just deal with massive surgery different than others. The fluid comes from inflamation caused from the two surgeries. Hopefully after tomorrow my body stops producing so much fluid and I can get on with getting better and stay out of the hospital.
Anyways in order to get the fluid out they told me to stop taking my Warfarin so that my blood will clot better. I have to get my INR down to 1.5 which will probably take until tomorrow. Today it was at 1.8 so I should be able to get it down. The plan right now is to head into the hospital tomorrow at 1:00. They will run some labs to make sure that everything is in order. Then they will stick a big 'ol needle in my back and drain the extra fluid out. They will do it all while looking at an ultra sound machine so that they can hit the fluid sack and not something else. Hopefully once they drain this fluid my body will stop producing more fluid.
I wish I knew why this was happening. All the doctors say there really is nothing I can do about it. It just happens. It's not all that uncommon. Some people's bodies just deal with massive surgery different than others. The fluid comes from inflamation caused from the two surgeries. Hopefully after tomorrow my body stops producing so much fluid and I can get on with getting better and stay out of the hospital.
Monday, March 22, 2010
Home Again
So I got out of the hospital for the second time Saturday afternoon. It's amazing how much a few little chest tubes can set you back. I mean when they describe the surgery to you it seams like nothing compared to the first operation. A "small" incision under my man boob to make a pericardial window and then two small holes for the drain tubes. Easy right? Not so much. Those three small holes hurt way more coming out of surgery than having my entire chest opened up. Granted it didn't take me as long to come out of this surgery....it just hurt a lot for a few hours, until they could get some drugs in me. The pain was so bad because the doctor basically spreads your ribs (no breaking though) and shoves a couple tubes between them to help with drainage. I got to keep those tubes for a day and a half. Every time I would breathe I could feel the pain in my ribs from those tubes moving around. It was really frustrating to have to be going threw all of this again. Not only was I frustrated to be going through another surgery so quickly but when I came out of this one I was sore and cranky.
Getting the chest tubes out is pretty fun too. I didn't realize how long they were each tube was probably 8-10 inches long. The doctor who removed them told me to breathe in and out three times and on the third one he told me to bare down. Sure enough on that third big breathe I felt a couple of tubes snaking their way out of my abdomen. At least he pulled them both at the same time. Getting them removed didn't hurt as much as I thought they would put its a pretty weird feeling.
Once those tubes were out I got to stay in the hospital for another day of observation and x-ray to make sure there wasn't any more fluid building up and then they sent me on my way again.
Again I have to say that the people at St. Joe's Hospital are pretty amazing. I was actually in the same room with the same nurses after my second surgery. They are all amazing people and took great care of me. Hopefully I never have to do anything like this again but if I should have to I know where I'm going.
All is well for now and things seem to be healing up nicely. Talk to ya later....
Getting the chest tubes out is pretty fun too. I didn't realize how long they were each tube was probably 8-10 inches long. The doctor who removed them told me to breathe in and out three times and on the third one he told me to bare down. Sure enough on that third big breathe I felt a couple of tubes snaking their way out of my abdomen. At least he pulled them both at the same time. Getting them removed didn't hurt as much as I thought they would put its a pretty weird feeling.
Once those tubes were out I got to stay in the hospital for another day of observation and x-ray to make sure there wasn't any more fluid building up and then they sent me on my way again.
Again I have to say that the people at St. Joe's Hospital are pretty amazing. I was actually in the same room with the same nurses after my second surgery. They are all amazing people and took great care of me. Hopefully I never have to do anything like this again but if I should have to I know where I'm going.
All is well for now and things seem to be healing up nicely. Talk to ya later....
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