I'm going to attempt to answer as many of your questions as I can, Miracle Man, because that is exactly what you are. I never had an aortic dissection so I can't speak to that aspect, but I did have a heart attack, emergency quintuple coronary artery bypass surgery, ventilator pneumonia and a c diff superbug infection that put me in a medically induced coma for two weeks with a 50/50 chance of survival, and another 3 weeks in inpatient rehab learning to walk and feed myself again. So I went through the wringer, although it seems like a vacation compared to what you experienced. Anyway, here we go:
- How long did it take for you to gain some sense of normalcy
Response: I was in the hospital and rehab for a total of 6 weeks, so I began to feel normal at 6 weeks. They sent me home with a walker but I hated it the first time I walked around the block with it, so I threw it away. Within 2 weeks after that, I was walking 1-2 miles a day unassisted and working out at an outpatient rehab facility 3x a week. I had a sense if normalcy, but I couldn't even imagine going back to for for another month after that.
- I had my surgery on 3/18 but I still feel pain in my chest and can't sleep comfortably. Is that normal (it's been a month and I still have pain).
Response: What you're feeling is totally normal. Since I wasn't awakened from my medically induced coma until 2 weeks after my open heart surgery, I missed out on most of the pain that others described but I did have pain along the sternum whenever I coughed or sneezed. I'd say it took around 2 months post surgery for that to go away. I also found it difficult and painful to sleep on my side for the first 6 weeks or so after surgery. How to get up out of bed and lie down without pain was something they taught me in rehab. I strongly recommend you enter into an outpatient rehab program. Finally, I felt something like muscle swelling around the area of my left pec, which I attributed to tissue healing from the artery that they took from that area of my chest to use as a graft for my left anterior descending coronary artery (the "widowmaker"). That took about 6 months to go away.
- I still cannot walk very far and I have to rest after walking up flights of stairs. Is that normal?
Response: Totally normal. The good news is you can recover your cardiovascular fitness incredibly quickly just by walking every day, increasing tour distance a little at a time. Like I said, I went from slowly walking around the block my first day home to walking 2 miles a day within 2 weeks of coming home.
- My left eye goes dark sometimes (it's happened four times since my surgery. I googled and it said there's many times there's a lack of oxygen reaching the eye.
- Could this be an effect of surgery
Response: I don't know but I wouldn't be surprised. When I first entered inpatient rehab, I was shocked to learn that I couldn't lift my right arm much higher than my waist. The rehab cardiologist attributed it to possible lack if sufficient oxygen to the area of the brain controlling the muscles of that arm. The good news is that with continued weight work with the physical therapists, I gradually regained complete range if morion and increasing strength in that arm to where, when I got home and was medically cleared to do my old gym workouts, I was once again doing barbell push presses, dips and eventually wall assisted handstand pushups and pullups with both arms equally (I was a high school gymnast, wrestled in college and am a lifelong weightlifter, so I had a lot of muscle memory to help me). The point is that I developed new wiring in my brain to make up for the temporary lack of oxygen and I believe you will too.
- My skin is peeling on my hands. Large portions (my finger print and close to the base of my finger). The hair on my knuckles has come up also
- The back of my hand is scaling
Response: Not sure what that is about but my guess is it's temporary. For about 8 weeks post surgery, I would wake up in the morning and my fingers would quiver, sort of like I had Parkinson's. It would go away as the morning progressed, only to return the next morning. When I told my doc about it, he said it was nothing and would soon go away completely. He was right.
- I am tired A LOT! Like I feel exhausted.
Response: Keep walking for fitness and treat yourself to naps as often as you need them. Your body went through a SHOCK. It's going to take a while to recover. Even though I went back to work and was lifting weights and even running 3 months after surgery, I wasn't at full strength until around a year post surgery. Give yourself time and be patient. I'm living on borrowed time, and as for you, you must have been the recipient of divine intervention by God himself-don't know how otherwise to explain the miracle of your survival
- My incision on my shoulder is still a little numb (when does feeling usually come back after surgery)
Response: No experience with this but my guess is it may be lack of oxygen related. Talk to your doctor. And physical rehab might help.
- What are the biggest permanent changes that I should expect
- Response: That scar down the middle of your chest. I explain it as either my survival of a bear attack or a shark attack or a knife fight. Hey, you may as well have fun.
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- Advice you wish someone had told you that you believe will be helpful before, and after the surgeries
Response: Focus on right now, not the future. Smell the roses. As John Mayer sings:
" Have no fear for giving in
Have no fear for giving over
You better know that in the end
It's better to say too much
Than never to say what you need to say again
Even if your hands are shaking
And your faith is broken
Even as the eyes are closing
Do it with a heart wide open, a wide heart
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say
Say what you need to say…"
Heal well brother,
Ira