Hi Brylan,
I had emergency quintuple bypass surgery 4 1/2 years ago immediately after a heart attack. I was 67 1/2 years old at the time, asymptomatic until the heart attack, and was told I had good collateral circulation as well. I did not have any time to think about anything post-heart attack. I basically was told we're wheeling you into surgery, do not "pass Go, do not collect $200" (if you remember the ild Monopoly game. I was and still am, post-surgery (now age 72) a lifelong gym rat.
The surgery went well except that I contracted pneumonia from the ventilator tube post surgery and they had to keep me in a medically induced coma while they treated tge pneumonia with antibiotics. The good news was that when they took me off the sedation, the pneumonia was gone (at least I was asymptomatic), the tubes in my chest had been removed and I was pain free other than when I coughed or sneezed. The bad news was that I was weak as a baby so they shipped me off to a rehab hospital where I made such amazingly quick physical recovery that I was threatening the rehab nurses that I was going to show them handstand push-ups and I gerryrigged the wheelchair that they wanted all patients to use when they were unsupervised so that the alarm would not go off when I abandoned the chair to take a walk in my own.
Once I was liberated from the rehab hospital,!my recovery was even quicker. A week after returning home, I was walking a mile a day and the next week 2 mules a day, attending outpatient rehab 3x a week and, within 2 months, I was back at work in my pressure packed job as partner at a large international law firm and back at my regular gym getting back to my normal strength training and cardio fitness. It took about a year to fully regain my strength.
The only practical advice I have is this: Since your dad has the luxury of time that I didn't have, research whether he is a candidate for "off pump" open-heart surgery.It's a newer and increasingly more popular form of open-heart surgery where they don't stop your heart and don't place you on a heart-lung machine while they perform the grafts. It is reportedly safer with less chance of adverse reactions to the surgery. In addition, I would research whether they could give your dad arterial grafts instead of vein grafts. Arterial grafts are less prone to reblockage in the future. I was given a arterial graft for my left anterior descending coronary artery (the widowmaker) but just veinous grafts for the other 4 arteries. Fortunately, so far, they all appear to be clear of any new blockages.
Anyway, open heart surgery is now quite common and almost routine these days. It's not fun but people generally make a full recovery and live full and active lives many years post-surgery.
Best of luck to you and your dad.
Ira
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Ira Reid
Hoboken NJ
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