Sean Status ; 3 weeks after my quad bypass

smeighan

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
1,109
Location
4217 Greenfinch Dr CO 80126
Well today is the 3 week anniversary of my quad bypass. The nurses called it CABG ( coronary artery bypass graft) x4.


If you remember I did not have any definite signs or symptoms of blocked arteries other than i was getting out of breath while on a boy scout hike with my sons. It turned out I had two arteries that were 100% blocked and two that were 80-90% blocked. My heart grew additional arteries around the blockages keeping the heart healthy and also masking how badly the main arteries were blocked.


My operation was Sep 27th, about 5 hours long. During the operation, they stop your heart for 2 hours while they stitch in the new bypasses.


My operation was very successful. Most people stay in the hospital 6-9 days after the operation, i was discharged on day 4. In the hospital they want you to inhale deeply. I started at 500ml and within a week i was inhaling 3000ml. The cardiac nurse on my 2 week checkup said i am healing faster than almost any other patient she has seen. Since her office does near 1000 CABG operations / year, i am doing good.
I have started cardiac rehab. This is where you walk on a tread mill, ellyptical or stationary bike for 45 minutes. The whole time you wired to an ekg and they watch how you get stronger over a few months.


I still find i get tired. Some days i sleep to 11am. Most days, i am up by 7:30am.


The biggest pain is that i cant drive for 6-8 weeks. The process of steering a car puts stress on the sternum. I cant raise my elbows above my shoulders, i cant lift more than 8lbs, i cant drive. All of this to give time for the break in the chest wall to heal.


I did not have bad stats before my operation
BP 140/70
Cholesterl 180mg
Weight: 210lb
They dont give you medicine to lower cholesterol until you get over 210mg.


slightly elevated BP, nothing that stood out. No chest pains, just out of breath.


My blood work this week
BP 116/65
Cholesterol: 125mg
Weight: 193lbs. I am 5'8" so 193 looks like i am overweight but i was captain of the gymnastic team in college, i have dense muscles. I weighed 182lbs in college (when i could do 100 hand stand pushups). So i feel i am still about 10lbs overweight. we will see if i can get to the weight i had in 1974.


I am able to play the flute and piccolo with more energy than i have in many years.
I am getting some insights to what I will feel like with a fully profused heart. I cant wait to go hiking with my boys.


My wife and I are completely redoing our kitchen. We are doing the work ourselves. The kitchen cabinets arrived two days before my surgery. After the surgery I have about a 2-3 month recovery period where i cant lift anything heavy. I was getting somewhat depressed about how the 3 month kitchen project was going turn into a 6 month kitchen project.
And then, I got calls from 3 different people. I want to give a special nod to Dan Demoli, Andy Rau and Burke Benton. All 3 are scout leaders. While I went in for my operation , the three of them came and installed all my kitchen cabinets. This took two 12 hour days on a Saturday and a Sunday. They demonstrated the true meaning of what scouting is about. To them, I can only say Thanks!

So, i am doing great! I am lucky this was found. I feel sorry whomever is sitting next to me when i am playing the piccolo.


thanks everyone for your support
sean
 

oldmanfathertime1000

Computers, music, audio, video, electronics
Joined
Jan 19, 2012
Messages
157
Location
Lake Arthur, Louisiana
Wonderful news to hear. We are all thankful to have you back ready to kick a$$.
I know your boys are thrilled to know you will be back out into the outside with them. & I know your wife is very happy & content. As far as your flute and piccolo playing goes, you should do a YouTube video for these guys to enjoy & maybe get a few giggles out of. They were able to live through my dancing video so your's will just add to the enjoyment.We all love you man & wish you the very best to you in your healing.......
 

bert-nc

New elf
Joined
Jan 8, 2012
Messages
35
Location
central North Carolina
Great news about how well your recovery is going. Hearing about how the scouts came and finished your kitchen project is a celabration of your work with the scouts. I know they look forward to when you can be back full throttle with them. That is the encouraging story for today, as the radio station I listen would say.

Bert-nc
 

924aussie

Full time elf
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
187
Location
Chinchilla
Dib Dib Dib dob dob dob
No that was my cub days :D

Good to hear of you recovery, I am semi retired and doing my ambulance course so I can volunteer as a first responder a lot of people don't know what's happening in their bodies and we all think we are fine . Actually I think we are all robots after reading all the text books that I have on the human body. It is absolutely amazing how it works .
 

greg58

Full time elf
Joined
Dec 19, 2012
Messages
219
Location
Berry Park
Good to hear a good news story. Well done. It is also a reminder to me, to get regular check-up's as we tend not to bother with things like that. Thanks for sharing.
 

logandc99

Dedicated elf
Joined
Jul 13, 2012
Messages
1,153
Great to hear you are making such a speedy recovery. No doubt you'll be amazed to see how much better you feel now that the old ticker is getting it's fair share of the blood supply.
 

Boof63

Senior elf
Joined
Nov 7, 2011
Messages
585
Location
Kadina
Great News, glad to hear to hear you are mending and well on the way to a full recovery.
:) :) :) :) cheers Boof63
 

Beacy

It's so much better on the dark side
Joined
Jun 10, 2010
Messages
467
Location
Beaconsfield
Wow you were so lucky that fate made you go to the docs after the scout trip, the blinky flashy gods must have been looking down on you. great to hear all is good now, you should geat another 40-50 years out of the new set so plenty more years of lights to come.
Oh and of course keep that amazing piece of software ticking we'd be lost without both you and it
 
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