Mended Hearts Open Forum

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  • 1.  Recent triple bypass patient

    Posted 02-15-2020 20:38
    Hello,

         Anyone in this group trying to recover from this surgery?   I'd be interested in your experiences.   Having a rough time myself.  After surgery, I went home, only to contract pneumonia.   Just got out of the Hospital for that.   Let me hear from you. 


  • 2.  RE: Recent triple bypass patient

    Posted 02-16-2020 10:53
    Hi Bill,

    I had emergency quintuple bypass surgery two years ago after a "mild" heart attack.  Like you, I also contracted pneumonia.  My pneumonia likely was contracted through the inhalation tube and it took two weeks to knock it out with antibiotics, during which time ai was kept in a medically induces coma.  When I finally awoke, the pneumonia was gone, most of my tubes had been removed, I was not in any pain (except if I coughed or sneezed), but I was so weak and had lost so much muscle tone that I literally could not lift a fork to my mouth to feed myself.  After another week in the hospital, during which I was generally conscious with periods of ICU hallucinations/delusions, they transferred me to a rehab hospital, where I remained three more weeks.

    At the rehab hospital, I made dramatic improvements on a daily basis.  I went from being to weak to sign my name on the intake form (I barely scribbled an x), to earning an advanced status pass that allowed me to wander around the hospital floors unattended in order to supplement the three hours a day physical therapy I was receiving from the PT folks, to doing times chair squats (otherwise known as sit and stands) trying to set speed records.  They wouldn't let me try doing pullups because my sternum had to heal.

    When I got home, I started a daily walking program and advanced quickly to greater and greater distances, from barely making it around the block to walking between 2-3 miles a day.  I had my ups and downs, including feeling the need to nap even after these relatively short walks, but I progressed at a steady pace and generally felt nothing but gratitude about my recovery

    I returned to work the months after the surgery (after completing an outpatient PT program and returning to my regular, pre-heart attack gym and weightlifting/bodyweight workout routine, albeit with much less weight at first) and even began running again after another couple of months.  Unfortunately, my running was curtailed after a bout of sciatica, to which I am prone, but I resumed walking and cycling instead.  I was 68 years old at the time.  I'm now turning 70 and still going strong.

    So, yes, despite whatever ups and downs you currently are experiencing, it is possible to make a complete recovery given time, patience, proper diet, following your doctor's advice, and plain old determination and hard work.

    Good luck, and keep us posted.

    Ira

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    Ira Reid
    Hoboken NJ
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