nursedarry | Entries tagged with heartsick

Hi everyone, here's the latest:

After hearing nothing about my op, I rang the surgeon's secretary after yet another sleepless night, and cried down the phone at her - just call me Meryl Streep. I was absolutely exhausted and probably a wee bit over-wrought, but it worked and she rang back the next day to tell me my operation had been scheduled for the 4th of April. But when I went to the Heart Hospital yesterday for my pre-admission visit, I was informed it had been moved to next Wednesday, the 28th.

The hospital is very nice, not big, and I was able to meet a lot of people. Had a chest X-Ray, saw the pharmacist, the dentist – yes, you have to have dental approval for cardiac surgery, saw a doc, had bloods and swabs taken and got to see the cardiac intensive care unit. Had a good chance to ask questions and met the head patient-liaison nurse, who’s very nice, but who will be skiing whilst I’m in hospital - bitch. My blood tests all came back fine so I’ll stay overnight in London on Tuesday in hospital accommodation and then be admitted to the ward on Wednesday morning. ~~I don’t know if I’m first or second on the list – I won’t know till the day before.~~ I was first.

The surgery will last about 5 hours and there’s a very long list of drips and drains and various other machines that go ping I’ll wake up attached to. I should be up and sitting in a chair on Thursday and walking around by the weekend, when Doug and the kids come to visit - Doug's back tonight for however long I need him to be.

I’m in CICU for a few days and then transferred to the ward for a few more. I should be back home about a week after the operation. Then I have a long list of follow-up appointments and rehab. I think all of that is in Reading.

I’ll have my phone and my netbook and there’s WiFi access at the hospital, I think, so I’ll try log on to leave a short post to let you know I'm okay.

Thanks again for all of the wonderful support and messages! Wish me luck. ♥

Hi everyone. Since I last posted, I've had an MRI (last week) and met with one of my surgeons, who I absolutely loved (today). I brought along a friend who's a drug rep and knows lots of A&P, just for moral support and I didn't want to drive after a whole 45 minutes of sleep last night, and she liked him too. Answered all my questions, really listened to me, and didn't speak in jargon. Made me feel like I am in very capable hands.

( Here's the state of play )

And completely off-topic, THANK YOU ALL FOR THE DRAGONS!!!

Overdue post is sort of...overdue.

( Hearts for me )

( Thank you and Kinkfest recs )

( Remix and Hols )

( My broken heart )

( Travel fail )

Right, that's enough of my blathering for now. Hearts to anyone I may have missed and thank you all again for keeping me in your thoughts.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU

Thank you to everyone who has left messages. cards and v gifts; it made the last few days go by quicker and kept me smiling.

I've had my trans-oesophogeal echo (which was bloody awful) and an angiogram (which wasn't; it was cool).

Here's the update:

♥ My mitral valve needs repairing/replacing (they'll know which when they get in there).

♥ At least one of my pulmonary veins (the tubes that lead back from the lungs to the heart with oxygenated blood) is connected to the wrong side of my heart. It's leading to the RIGHT atrium, not my left, where it should be. I think the docs were as surprised as I was when they saw that.

Next up, an MRI on my heart to find out exactly how many of my pulmonary veins are connected to my right atrium. Shortly after that, I'll have my endoscopy to see if I do or do not have a hiatus hernia - docs now aren't sure I do, but if I do, I can start treatment for that.

Then it's on to the London Heart Hospital for the operation to fix the valve and move the pulmonary vein(s) to where they should be. This will require two surgeons, so my surgery date will depend on when they're both available.

In the meantime, I'm on a very large cocktail of drugs to keep me from getting too short of breath, keep my fluid levels down, thin my blood, keep my heart in a regular rhythm, and best of all, keep me pain-free.

These are hereditary conditions, so I'm going to send all my notes to my sis and she'll see a cardio asap, and so will my kids. I've managed to make it to 45, carry twins and teach aerobics without this being a problem, so it could very well be masked in them.

I'm barely making it up my stairs these days, and am very tired. But I don't feel particularly frightened, just so much better to finally have a diagnosis.

taradiane, I'll be spamming you.

Or rather, the CCU (Cardiac Care Unit) of the Royal Berkshire Hopital, which is where I'm currently residing.

( My Broken Heart )

It's okay, I've done it before.

Entries tagged with heartsick

Operation is a go - 28 March

The plot thinnens again...but there will be a happy ending

OMG Everything!

You're so vein...

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