One of the things I notice now that I'm walking every day is that there are lots of other people out there walking too.
Unless they are carrying the little red pillow it is hard to guess whether they, like me, are recovering from heart surgery or just walking for the pleasure or other health benefits.
I thought I'd make some t-shirts to help us identify each other.
I don't know about you but some times it gets pretty lonely struggling through recovery. It would be nice to be able to talk to someone else going through the same thing.
Here is a look at what I'm working on. I'm just getting started so let me know if there is anything you would like to see or improvements to be made.
create & buy custom products at Zazzle
Friday 28 August 2009
Thursday 27 August 2009
Once I was Home
Once I was home, I was truly an invalid for a couple of weeks.
I spent a lot of time just dozing in my La-Z-Boy chair. Everything was hard, from putting on my clothes to finding the appetite to eat, usually just soup in the first week.
Twice a week a home care nurse visited to check on my wounds and change the dressings.
The wounds and the scars they leave are distinctive.
There is a straight incision of about eight inches long down the centre of the chest, a couple of stab wounds where the tubes were inserted to drain the fluids and old blood from the chest cavity, and in my case three long gashes where the veins for the grafts were taken from my left leg.
The cuts on my leg were held closed with staples. No kidding. They looked just like something used in carpentry or craft class at school.
My first outing came ten days after surgery when I had to visit my family doctor to have those staples removed. They had given me a special tool for the purpose when I was discharged from the hospital to take with me when I visited the doctor. The removal of the staples was not pleasant. It hurt a little bit more than having stitches removed which wasn't so bad but there were just so many of them.
Just being out and about after surgery was disorienting. I had to keep the little red pillow handy to support my chest when I walked or coughed. I think it was the amount of drugs I was taking that was the biggest problem. It made me feel unbalanced like I was on a boat.
It takes six weeks for the breast bone to heal completely so for those weeks you have to be very careful. Ten pounds is the upward limit of what you should lift and activity should be concentrated on walking and mild exercise.
I tried to take short walks twice a day. The first few attempts were pretty pitiful but slowly I was able to get more distance .
At the end of the third week home I was able to walk enough to start attending the "Heart Show" education program, a three session prerequisite for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program I was enrolled in.
So here is the chronology of events:
I spent a lot of time just dozing in my La-Z-Boy chair. Everything was hard, from putting on my clothes to finding the appetite to eat, usually just soup in the first week.
Twice a week a home care nurse visited to check on my wounds and change the dressings.
The wounds and the scars they leave are distinctive.
There is a straight incision of about eight inches long down the centre of the chest, a couple of stab wounds where the tubes were inserted to drain the fluids and old blood from the chest cavity, and in my case three long gashes where the veins for the grafts were taken from my left leg.
The cuts on my leg were held closed with staples. No kidding. They looked just like something used in carpentry or craft class at school.
My first outing came ten days after surgery when I had to visit my family doctor to have those staples removed. They had given me a special tool for the purpose when I was discharged from the hospital to take with me when I visited the doctor. The removal of the staples was not pleasant. It hurt a little bit more than having stitches removed which wasn't so bad but there were just so many of them.
Just being out and about after surgery was disorienting. I had to keep the little red pillow handy to support my chest when I walked or coughed. I think it was the amount of drugs I was taking that was the biggest problem. It made me feel unbalanced like I was on a boat.
It takes six weeks for the breast bone to heal completely so for those weeks you have to be very careful. Ten pounds is the upward limit of what you should lift and activity should be concentrated on walking and mild exercise.
I tried to take short walks twice a day. The first few attempts were pretty pitiful but slowly I was able to get more distance .
At the end of the third week home I was able to walk enough to start attending the "Heart Show" education program, a three session prerequisite for the Cardiac Rehabilitation Program I was enrolled in.
So here is the chronology of events:
- Bypass Surgery on December 22nd
- Home on December 27th
- Staples out January 6th
- 1st pre-rehab class January 23rd
- Begin 12 week of Cardiac Rehabilitation program February 10th
Sunday 16 August 2009
Beginning to Recover
Once I was in the regular Cardiac Recovery Ward my main preoccupation was to try and breathe normally.
I had a little nose thingy that supplied oxygen and the nurses were constantly encouraging me to try and cough.
That hurt. I was given a red pillow to hug when I coughed or moved or in any way put stress on my broken breast bone and chest. That helped.
These red pillows are made by volunteers. Mine came from a lady in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She has my gratitude. That little pillow helped me through the early days as I took my first post-operative steps. It must have been quite a pitiful sight as I well know from watching the others in my ward.
There we were, slightly hunched from the pain, clutching our little red pillows in a bear hug, pressing them to our chests with both arms and shuffling along, trying to get from our bed to the end of the hall and back.
The pain was bad but the mantra was, "Don't try to be a hero. Take your pain medications."
The idea is that by taking the pain medication you would be able to get up and move around a little. That is what helps you to heal but most of all, it helps to get your lungs back in operation after they were collapsed during the surgery.
I didn't like the pain medication because a whole day would pass in a haze but the nurses are right, without the pain medication you sure don't feel like getting up and walking around.
The first week was a little rough but after five days I was released to go home.
I had a little nose thingy that supplied oxygen and the nurses were constantly encouraging me to try and cough.
That hurt. I was given a red pillow to hug when I coughed or moved or in any way put stress on my broken breast bone and chest. That helped.
These red pillows are made by volunteers. Mine came from a lady in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia. She has my gratitude. That little pillow helped me through the early days as I took my first post-operative steps. It must have been quite a pitiful sight as I well know from watching the others in my ward.
There we were, slightly hunched from the pain, clutching our little red pillows in a bear hug, pressing them to our chests with both arms and shuffling along, trying to get from our bed to the end of the hall and back.
The pain was bad but the mantra was, "Don't try to be a hero. Take your pain medications."
The idea is that by taking the pain medication you would be able to get up and move around a little. That is what helps you to heal but most of all, it helps to get your lungs back in operation after they were collapsed during the surgery.
I didn't like the pain medication because a whole day would pass in a haze but the nurses are right, without the pain medication you sure don't feel like getting up and walking around.
The first week was a little rough but after five days I was released to go home.
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