Sleep Problems After Heart Surgery

It is apparently very common after open heart surgery to have problems sleeping. What a curse it is too. Even now a little over a year down the road from my quadruple by pass I rarely sleep through a full night.


In the first weeks after coming home from the hospital sleeping was an ordeal. Just getting into bed involved some careful planning. As painful as it was to get into bed, getting back up was worse.

As time went by, it was easier getting up and down but sleep was still more of a doze interrupted by crazy, vivid dreams. As the house quieted in the night I would hear my own heart beat or feel it. Again, a very normal after affect but still a bit creepy.

When the breast bone healed it was easier to get into comfortable positions and sleep improved. I would still sometimes be uncomfortably aware of my own heart beat but not as often. I would still awaken every couple of hours. When I say awaken I mean wide awake. Glance at the clock to see if it is time to get up wide awake.

So it has gone, first awakening every hour or two, then after three hours and so on. For a month or more I would drift off and sleep well only to bolt into wakefulness at precisely 4:30 AM. Then I would I lay there thinking in circles, listening to my heart beating and reliving all of those moments of my life that seemingly only have the power to haunt in the dark watches of the night.

You know, it wouldn't be so bad if I remembered happy things, triumphs or great fishing trips while I lay there waiting to sleep again but it doesn't seem to work that way.

As I say, it is a common after effect of open heart surgery and should fade away with time. It is something that a doctor could likely help with but I have an aversion to the thought of taking more drugs. I reckon that now that I'm more fit and getting lots of exercise it should soon be getting a lot better.

There Is No Cure for Heart Disease

Well the news about President Clinton serves as a reminder that even though the immediate problem of blocked arteries can be repaired by a Coronary Artery Bypass Graft, the fact of the matter is that heart disease is only repaired not cured.

A bypass lasts for a decade or so and by then new blockages will have usually formed in the veins used to create the graft.

President Clinton's latest problem was fixed in an interesting way. They didn't perform another bypass to replace the graft that had plugged. The surgeon decided to use angioplasty to clear the artery that had originally blocked requiring him to have the bypass graft in the first place. Once it was cleared the surgeon inserted two stents to keep it open.

Mr. Clinton had his quadruple bypass in 2004. That seems like a short time for one of the grafts to have plugged up again but if ten years is the average time I suspect it is a matter of luck and how strictly he followed his diet and workout routine.

The good news for those of us living with heart disease is that as long as the heart isn't damaged by a heart attack, chances are we will live long and productive lives. We may have to go through more grafts or stents but I guess that beats the alternative.

So, my fellow members of the Zipper Club remember:

• eat well
• take your medications to keep your Cholesterol under control
• exercise
• watch your blood pressure
• reduce stress as much as possible
• keep your doctor's appointments
• call 911 at the first sign of chest pain

With luck, our grafts will be the ones that never get clogged again.