Up at 4:30 A.M. to shower, take the girls (my dogs) out to powder their noses and then arrive at the hospital for a 6:30 A.M. check-in for my scheduled pre-surgery heart catherizaton procedure. We, my best friend and I, were a little late leaving the house, so I was a little nervous about getting to the hospital on time. Other than that, I was calm with my blood pressure at 104 over 76 when they took my vitals in day surgery.
My little hospital bag was all packed and ready to go in case the heart catherization revealed something that necessitated my staying in the hospital overnight. As it turned out, everything looked superb (no clogged veins or arteries around the heart); however, now, in addition to my severely regurgitating tricuspid valve which has to be fixed, I also have a mildly prolapsed (leaking) mitral valve.
Dr. Levy, my surgeon, said that he may or may not repair the mitral valve while he has my chest open tomorrow. It depends on how complicated things are with the tricuspid valve repair or replacement.
He wants to do a repair if possible, but a pig valve will be used if repair of my own valve isn't possible. In that event, as some of the valve replacement surgery patients recounted in Adam Pick's book, The Patient's Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, you will be inundated with oink oink jokes from friends and family.
Barbara Bush, (we're in good company), recently had one of her heart valves replaced with a pig valve, and she said that good natured joking was one of the unexpected hazards of choosing the pig valve replacement option. Personally, I'd rather have my heart steadily ticking along with a pig valve than not ticking at all; how about you?
For me, the catherization procedure was a breeze; it was educational, and I would even use the word "fun". While conscious sedation was used, I was entirely awake for the whole thing, and got to see on the monitor's screen the same things that Dr. Fredrici, the friendly, knowledgeable cath. specialist, was seeing.
Of course, I was asking lots of questions, and he was kind enough to answer my questions as he ran the tiny cath. tube from one side of my heart to the other. The procedure itself only lasts about 15 minutes, but, then, you have to lie flat for at least two hours after the procedure is completed. Lying flat on your back for two hours while they are running fluids through your IV is no small accomplishment. I was dying to urinate almost all of those two hours.
By far, the most painful part of my heart cath. procedure was when the nurse placed the IV line into top of my left hand. Another rather disconcerting part of the procedure prep was the shaving of the pubic area. The prep. Nurse shaved both sides of the area, leaving a stand-up Mohawk dead center.
She used an electric razor, which tended to grab and pull and hurt like she was rapid-fire tweezing each hair separately. It didn't last all that long, but was quite uncomfortable until she completed her task. I said, "I'll bet that's going to itch like sin growing out", and she said, "yes, most likely".
Well, tomorrow is valve replacement surgery day. I'll be in ICU for at least a day, but will post again ASAP. I'm thinking I'll be roller-skating around the halls of the hospital in a day or two.
Only 12 hours after surgery, they get you up to walk a little. Can you believe that?
did you die?
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