Souveniers

I went into the hospital on January 23 to have my aortic valve replaced. All things considered, I had a pretty good attitude - not a lot of concerns. I've been under general anesthesia twice before so I was confident all would go well this time, too. Well, something went wrong - too long of a procedure? the heart lung bypass machine? Who knows. Either way, my body rejected something and I spent a week in ICU fighting to survive.

I was discharged from the hospital on February 4 - almost two weeks later. Alive, yes -- that does count for an awful lot! But also with a range of weirdness that had happened to my body (or would start to happen over the next few days) from all the trauma.

• thrush - a yeast infection in my mouth
• 100% hearing loss in my right ear
• GIGANTIC bruise (darkest purple I've ever seen) on my upper left thigh
• high blood sugar
• high blood pressure
• various blotches, tape/sticky marks, etc - but these are pretty much standard
• two arms which were TERRIFIED of needles for the next couple weeks - I swear my veins all went into hiding (who could blame them)
• rather startling hair loss (this started the day after I got home)
• dry, flaky skin - practically leper-like (between the hair and the skin, Tony was constantly vacuuming up after me)
• scabby knot on the back of my head (where did this come from? We noticed it several days after I was home)
• concerns about kidney function
• concerns about fluid around my heart

I've been home a couple weeks and things are starting to settle down a little. Everything seems to be healing well and the weirdness seems to be subsiding a little.

• the thrush was gone after about a week (what a gross week). I still can't really taste much, but my doctor assures me that is only temporary
• still no hearing in my right ear, but we remain optimistic that once things settle down and my body heals itself, this might correct also
• the bruise has pretty much disappeared (believe it or not, there's still evidence four weeks later - it was a hell of a bruise)
• I'm off the insulin (way to go, pancreas!) but continue to monitor my blood sugar twice a day
• I'm on medication for my blood pressure - hopefully this will come under control and I can get off the meds
• all the tape/sticky marks have been washed away (several showers later)
• my arms and veins are relaxing a little - they've only been poked twice in the last two weeks
• the hair loss has reduced dramatically (no harm done - I started with a lot of hair so it never reached the point of being noticeable, other than to me)
• the dry, flaky skin has subsided after a change to a milder soap and applying plenty of lotion
• the knot is gone, but the scab remains
• I have appointments with the kidney specialist, as well as my surgeon in a week and a half, so these last two concerns will be answered then

Day by day, inch by inch my body is recovering. My energy level is very low and I do feel weak - but if my body needs that energy and strength to heal itself, I can hold off on running any marathons until it's done. ;-)

"You almost died!"

I had an appointment today with my primary care doctor, Dr S. Sort of a post-surgery follow-up to bring her into the loop (my surgeon's office had sent my records) and to touch base on some pesky little irritations I have going on. Tony and I've been seeing her for years; of course neither of us has been really sick, so luckily we haven't had to see a lot of her. Well, turns out, she's pretty cool.

We were waiting in the exam room for a while (I wanted Tony to come back with me as he knows more about all the post-surgical complications than I do). At one point Tony said "hopefully it's taking a while because she's reading the novel the surgeon's office faxed over". He was right. There was a knock, the door started to open, and before her head even appeared, we heard Dr S say sympathetically "You almost died!"

Over the next half hour (yes, we had her full attention after she read the surgeon's report) we covered all aspects of my surgery, complications, recovery, etc. Dr S was very sympathetic (lots of "you poor thing", pats on the shoulder and the knee) and understanding of how I feel physically. When I told her I have no energy she said "well yeah, you almost died!" It was actually sort of cute the way she kept saying this - equal parts impressed and sympathetic.

It was a very good appointment, and we think Dr S is sort of excited to have such an interesting patient case to monitor and treat. I go back in two weeks to check-in again and see what's happening. I was happy that she wants to be so involved in my recovery; as well as her support of my just wanting to take it slow.

She checked my blood sugar readings and recommended I discontinue the insulin but continue to monitor my blood sugar and report to her. She prescribed a powder for a skin irritation I have -- that's all I'll say about that. And she told me that the pasty-mouth not-able-to-taste-anything thing I got going is not an infection, but it's just traumatized taste buds and she assured me it will get better. That earned me another "you poor thing" and a pat on the knee.

So, I'm improving, but it will continue to take time - I'm excited to get off the insulin, and I've noticed that my hair loss has slowed dramatically from what it was last week (thank God I had so much to begin with!). Tony and I are taking it day-to-day and he says he is more than happy to take care of me (which is nice because he left the appt with a whole new list of "To Do's").

We did lunch at Ground Round after the appt -- we know how to do Valentine's Day up right. ;-) I joke, because having Tony here wanting to take care of me, filling all my prescriptions, buying me fruit, etc, is about the best Valentine's gift I could hope for. :-)

I'm home!!!

I think I owe my own tremendous-sized update after all the work Tony went to over the last couple weeks. I will be working on one in the next couple days.

In the mean time, rest assured I'm home and alive and well. The "well" bit gets a little hazy in areas, but I'm a trooper, I'll survive.

Just know that I'm cognitive, coherent, strong, etc. No rolling-eyed, drooling, touched in the head burden for Tony to have to deal with (at least not since like last Monday or something).

I can't express my appreciation to Tony, my parents, and my in-laws for all of their hands-on love and support over the last couple weeks. Remember, this was their emotional and physical burden for over a week before I was clued-in and had to upgrade my own fight.

And thank you to everyone who sent their best wishes, positive thoughts, prayers, etc. Visits were truly appreciated (not just by me), but even if you weren't there in body, I know you were in spirit.