My Adventures in Triple Bypass Surgery

It's been good to hear from you all family, brother Marines, friends and all with valid questions about my open heart surgery and I'll answer them up in short order and give you some background.

Almost 3 months ago in September, around the 25th I had some chest pressure as I was going to bed. When I would lay down it felt like someone was standing on my sternum, when I sat up it would go away.. talked with Dee and she said you are going to the hospital.

Remember us men, we don't usually go to the Dr. on our own like we should... YOU should.

They admitted me to the hospital and I stayed overnight. They found no signs of cardiac enzymes indicative of a heart attack, they told me it was probably an angina attack but that I did have quite a few risk factors: I was overweight, I snored (yes snoring is a risk factor called sleep apnea) family history of heart disease on mom and dad sides, high cholesterol, high blood pressure and a touch of adult onset diabetes due to my weight and lack of exercise. So the doctor, still concerned, gave me mainly beta blockers for hyper tension, cholesterol pills, and even some good ole nitroglycerine to get the ticker back if I did feel a heart attack coming on. Mind you this was in September.

Fact: Dr. told me all men over the age of 40 should take one baby aspirin every day or so, to help keep the blood from developing random clots that can cause stroke or heart attacks. Other risk factors include: Major alcohol usage, more than 8-12 drinks a week. SMOKING.... High sodium/salt usage contributes to high blood pressure which damages your arteries...

I started an exercise program and was doing 30-40 minutes of cardio 3-4x week and abs and chest and arms, plus playing raquetball against young Marines... 30 minutes a day MINIMUM non-work related cardio/walking/jogging makes a difference... it contributed to my rapid recovery and I am still losing weight as I recover.

Well, November15ish, (the doctor from 9/25 called me back and had asked if they had scheduled and done the cardiolight yet- they hadn't- he got on it- this guy saved my life in my humbke opinion) .

They finally scheduled my cardiolight treadmill stress test for 11/27. It's a test that is actually done in 2 parts. First part they get you on a treadmill and get your heart work rate up 65% from normal rest then they shoot you with a radioactive isotope solution (cardiolight) and put you on an MRI-like camera device that takes pictures of your heart in a circular motion for like 16 minutes. Then you come back for a resting heart rate picture the next day. They shoot the isotope in you, make you eat a fatty breakfast, I know the irony was not lost on me, and then after an hour shoot pictures of your heart again and send you home.

That evening my medical group called me, the cardiologist who read my test results says, "You have to check into the ER and stay overnight for observation." On my part, I did my best sea lawyer arguing with this guy: that it was Saturday night and nothing would be done until Monday was my main issue, which he conceded. The cadiologist didn't recommend me staying home, he highly recommended that for my age it was an emergency and to come in. I told him I would be in on Sunday AM, I reasoned with myself.

I had been at dinner with my son Jerymiah and his sister Jesika and as I drove back home I was thinking the worst possibe scenarios, so I texted Dee and told her that I was checking in and I would be in the Fontana Kaiser hospital Saturday night... After one night there, they then transferred me to St. Bernardine's Catholic Hospital on Sunday night so I could get an angiogram done Monday AM, which is the normal routine for an abnormal cardiolight test.

Monday around 11 AM-ish, they took me for my angiogram. It was a nice BIG clear HD screen, they shot some iodine dye into my heart - which I must say is impressive to feel...

Angiogram: They insert a catheter into the artery at your groin and shove a long probe thing up into your heart, they then shoot dye into your heart and INSTANTLY your whole body feels hot, like the proverbial "hot heroin body rush", similar I hear. Then you can see every artery and valve of your heart...

As he starts focusing the screen onto my heart I can actually SEE one of the blockages before he even points it out to me, it looked like two pencils held an inch apart connected by a thread, the thread being all that was open for blood to pass through, then he showed me another, then as he was saying there's a third one, all I heard was Charlie Brown's parents... All I could think was, "They are cracking my chest open. I could die on the table, they are gonna pop open my chest..." the Dr., "mwah mwah mwah mwah..." You are over saturated with info before and up to this point, there is a channel on the hospital TV - I had already watched the program, I had read all the literature they gave me and the little info-comics.. I was in a state of dread and scared.

So in a sense, yeah, this extremeness of condition was as news to me as it was to all of you, even though my denial states had already told me that I had issues inside of me, but it was real news as I posted it from my phone. Dr. said, all we need to do now is schedule you for the surgery, it could be as early as tomorrow or next week. We talked, I talked to Dee and my son, we all decided to go with the next day since I was already there, and hell- would I even have come back next week??!!

Surgery prep was something else, they shaved my whole chest (it is coming back in now and its driving me crazy) and they shaved both my legs - they were going to be taking an artery from my right leg but if that one wasn't good enough they needed my left left prepped. They wheeled me to the pre op room where Sister Catherine prayed with me. Then they. wheeled me into the surgery theater and it was surreal, they all introduced themselves to me, each face hovering over mine as I looked up as lights and stainless steel. It was cheery mood, music was playing, then I don't remember anything... blackness.

I awoke to the feeling of something being jammed into my neck and I was thinking, "Shit, they didn't give me enough sleepy night night, I am waking up in surgery." It wasnt, it was in the recovery room in CCU. They were trying to put something called a SWAN into my jugular that had a blood gas probe on it that would sit in my heart, but they coudln' get it in right, so I never worked right and they left it there for 3 days and my neck was like a steel cord after all that jabbing jamming they were doing... its sore still as it relaxes even now.

They made me get up out of bed the morning after my surgery - that was awful pain. Waking up post op with a tube in my throat had been scary too. Even though they told me, "you will have a tube in your throat breathe like you do when you are scuba diving..." I fought the respiratory tech folks and was pointing at the tube and miming it pulled out and everything, I was mad, irritable and anxious and wanted that damn thing out- but they fought back and told me to follow their instructions because if they pulled it and I was too weak to breathe on my own it would go back in. I couldn't argue with that logic at all, I stopped fighting and complied... I was dreaming of sucking on ice cubes as I was waiting to get the thing out and get my breathing up to their standards to get the intibation tubes out.

After almost 4 hours I had done enough to get it pulled out, but brother the damage was done. Because I had not been as calm and compliant as I should have been, my throat was raw and swollen and all I ate for the first 2 days was jello, ice cream, broth and ice cubes and water and a little sugar free lemon shasta soda...

Pulling the tube was just nothing like I'd ever thought it'd be, I mean I have watched ER and House, it never was that bad when they pulled their tubes...I was wrong, it was gnarly! As they pull it out of your larynx you have a total nasty mucous layer and saliva seal around your esophagus, the tubes comes out and pulls that "shit" out too and it is nasty! A big old green saliva and snot bomb they have to suction quickly or you could drown if it drops into your larynx just vacated by the intibation tube. I was happy to be breathing on my own, ragged as my throat was.

Next for me to deal with was the pain of my broken sternum; they cut my "breastbone" in half to pry open my ribs and get to my heart for the surgery. I stopped morphine after 2 days and went to just vicodin for 3 more and then went cold turkey. I take an occasional Alleve now, but no more opiates for me, I don't need an addiction and that stuff stops you up, and I am an onery person if I am constipated!!

They had me up and walking, like I said earlier, literally like within 8 hours after surgery, first just to a chair in my room to sit up in, then around the unit... They would ask me, "do you want to move back into the bed?" and I was thinking "HELL NO, that shit hurts!" but just said, "No, I'd rater sit in the chair." They told me it was great that I was sitting up- hell I just didn't want the pain of getting into bed. I never knew though, til now, how important walking and expanding your lungs is after a surgery like this, but it keeps you from getting pneumonia and actually strengthens your constitution... I am up to 1 hour (+/-) a day walking now.

It's survivable, but it would've been alot harder if I hadn't started that exercise program for a month and a half before the operation, because that really boosted my energy and strength hugely...

Anyway, I hope I anwered your questions? I'm post op day 16 now... 4.5 more weeks to go til I can go back to work, a couple until I can drive... so they say....

Here's some information on sleep apnea and snoring you might find interesting.
http://www.sleepconsultants.com/snoring.html