health

Wow, I had open-heart surgery!

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I can’t believe it. I keep walking around the house thinking “wow, I had open-heart surgery. I can’t believe it!” Then I move wrong and I believe it, alright. It’s funny, the doctors and nurses keep saying “You’re not allowed to drive for four weeks! Don’t even think about it!” And I’m thinking I’d rather DIE than drive right now, so I can’t imagine what idiots decide to get behind the wheel like this, but there must be some or they wouldn’t give that warning.

For our Anniversary, David and Garrett made us Chicken Florentine with angel hair pasta in a clam sauce, and an excellent salad. Garrett came over and served dinner for us. It was sweet and amazing and I have to say it’s too bad that they don’t have their own restaurant, because I’d totally go there all the time.

They switched my drugs from vicodin to darvocet, and the freaky nightmares went away. I’m still getting used to sleeping on my back, though, which is not what I’m used to, so I’m having trouble sleeping. It’s getting better. It’s a long story about why, but Kathy helped switch my mattresses around and she built me a platform to help me get into bed. It’s so much more comfortable.

I’ve been watching the first (only) season of the TV show Wonderfalls. I bought it a couple of months ago and saved it for this occasion. I also watched part of the Incredibles, but I did that in the middle of the night when I didn’t want to go back to sleep because of the nightmares, so I need to re-watch it because I’m sure my ideas about it are skewed. But the premise of that film is really interesting. I’m not sure I agree with all of their message. I kind of want to talk to Andy about it sometime, because he loved it so much and identified with the movie so he saw it twice.

I haven’t played Xbox because it’s a bit too much moving yet. This is the most typing I’ve done in a while, because that’s not fun, either.

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Are you nervous?

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Heck yes. It’s funny, that’s the question that nearly everyone has asked me. I am really nervous. So I’m just in denial about the whole thing, for now. I’m sure I’ll lose it once I get to the hospital. 🙂

Seriously, though, I think I’ll be just fine. I’m young and strong and pretty healthy, and I know lots of folks who’ve had this done. It’s a major surgery, but it’s a pretty common procedure for the doctors, and since it’s not an emergency and I’m not currently in distress, things are really positive. I’m sure it will suck for a while, but I’ll be back and writing in no time.

For family and friends — if you’re in town, one of the main things we might need is for someone to sit with me in the evening so Stephanie can feed her cat and get her mail and tend to her home. So if you want to hang out with an invalid and watch some DVDs or play some Xbox, we’ll probably call you up.

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Surgery details and information

I go in for surgery at 5:30 a.m. this Friday at Methodist Hospital in downtown Indianapolis. 1701 N. Senate Blvd. Indianapolis, IN 46206. 1-800-248-1199 is the toll-free number to call for information.

If you want to see me in the hospital before surgery, please come at 5:30. If you are visiting while I’m in surgery, you will need to go to the main information desk to find out details of where I am. The operating room and surgery waiting areas are on the second floor of the A building. Parking garage 1 is the closest parking area.

Surgery starts at 7:30 and should take about 4 hours. After surgery I will be moved to the Cardiovascular Critical Care Unit (CVCC), which is on the second and third floors of the same building, building A. Family members may be in one of two waiting rooms — 317-923-0171 or 317-923-0170. Or you can try to call Stephanie on her cell.

Visiting hours while I’m in the CVCC are: 9:30-11:30 a.m., 12:30-3:00 p.m., 4:30-6:30 p.m., and 8:30-11:00 p.m. While I’m in the CVCC, I can receive cards and mylar balloons. Flowers, planters, or latex balloons aren’t allowed on the unit.

After a couple days, I should be moved out of the critical care unit to a regular room, where I’ll be for a couple more days. I should have more visiting hours there and be able to see people. If you want to come visit me, call the information number to find out where I am and what my visiting hours are. Or you can send me monkeys. 🙂

Stephanie will be sending some e-mail updates letting family and friends know how I am. She’ll also be posting to my Web site, so watch this spot for more information.

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CPAP Breathing Machine

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I’ve been using the breathing machine for my sleep apnea since Thursday evening, and I think it’s a success. I feel much better rested now and able to concentrate. The mask part of the machine is somewhat annoying; I can’t read before falling asleep because I can’t wear my glasses, and I have to take my earrings out because they’re in the way. But I’m slept much more soundly.

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Additional Living Will Pointers

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The Onion provides a few Living Will pointers I hadn’t thought of, but will now factor into my surgery preparation plans. Among them:

Leave at least one reasonably flattering photo for the press. This point cannot be emphasized enough.

Explain in no uncertain terms that, should you die and return as a zombie, loved ones must shoot you in the head without hesitation.

Research medical life-support technology and specify whether you’d prefer to be hooked up to a Danninger Continuous Passive Motion device, an Emerson suction unit, or a Slushee machine.

Comatose people have been shown to exhibit a brainstem-level response to music, so prepare a decade’s worth of mix tapes in advance.

One thing I’m actually doing is the last one… I’m putting together a post-recovery playlist of soothing music to listen to in the hospital on my iPod, after reading that soothing music can help relieve pain.

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Sleep Study Results

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Sleep apnea is defined as the absence of airflow at the nose and mouth for longer than 10 seconds during sleep. Sleep apnea syndrome (SAS) is described as the occurrence of more than 30 apnea episodes over a seven-hour period of nocturnal sleep.

My doctor says I had 150 – 160 episodes during my study where I either stopped breathing or had severe shallow breathing, causing me to awaken. I also had a slight drop in oxygen levels. So my sleep apnea is classified as severe. This is causing a severe disruption in my sleep, which helps explain why I’m tired all the time, in addition to my tiredness from the heart valve problem.

Sleep Apnea Information and Resources
The solution is that I have to have a C-PAP breathing machine and mask to use at night, which I go to get set up tomorrow. I also have to lose weight, which might be the cause of the problem, or which might help contribute to other factors that are the actual cause. I’ve always have trouble with snoring and waking up, though, even back when I was thin. My roommates in college used to complain about it. So I suspect that my weight isn’t the only cause.

Interestingly, weight gain is also listed as one of the symptoms sleep apnea — meaning having apnea contributes to weight gain.

Sleep Apnea as a Cause of Obesity
Obesity and sleep apnea are a chicken and egg problem. It is not always clear which condition is responsible for the other. For example, obesity is often a risk factor and possibly a cause of sleep apnea, but it is also likely that sleep apnea increases the risk for weight gain:

Some studies indicate that sleep apnea disrupts rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, which, in turn, increases the risk for obesity.

Research indicates that animals deprived of REM sleep tend to eat more.

People with apnea may also become too tired to exercise and so put on weight.

He also said that I have to let the anesthesiologist know about this before surgery, so they don’t take my breathing tube out too early after surgery while I’m still under sedation, because I could get oxygen deprivation and brain damage. Which makes me remember when I was coming out of sedation after my appendectomy, and how I couldn’t breathe and the nurses kept coming over and shaking me and telling me to breathe. No wonder I’m stupid.

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Heart Matters

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Heart DiagramWhat an echo-cardiogram is.

Also, the dangers of Endocarditis, also known as heart valve infection.

I’m googling these things because I have to go get an echo-cardiogram for the first time since I was a kid. I have a congenital heart murmur, which has apparently gotten worse in the last two years.

More specifically, I have two problems: a pulmonary stenosis, which means my pulmonary valve is too narrow and doesn’t pump blood efficiently. And I also have Mitral Valve prolapse, which means my mitral valve doesn’t close completely and allows blood to flow backwards into the previous chamber, causing a whooshing sound or “murmur.”

Apparently my murmur has gone from a grade 1 to a grade 3 on a scale of 6. It’s possible that this increase in the murmur may be a result of age, or as a result of a heart valve infection that occurred when I had my appendix rupture.

Interestingly, this site mentions as symptoms two things that I do recall having: fatigue, exhaustion, and light-headedness (may result from low cardiac output) and shortness of breath when lying down (orthopnea). Hmm.

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Appendix Rupture

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Appendix Diagram

Well, I Never Read the Appendixes Anyway

I’m back to work today and doing a lot better. I’m still not 100% and I’m pretty tired, but I’ll be fine if I can just get home and crash tonight. This past week and a half has been hell. I’m like a human pin cushion. I was in the hospital from Wednesday through Monday morning hooked up to an IV, and they had to move that around a bunch as well as take blood once a day to test my white-blood cell count, so my arms are bruised and full of holes and I look like a junkie. I hate the hospital with a passion and if I could figure out how to get out of going back there, I would. But there’s no way I can avoid it.

But I will need to go back in and have my appendix removed in the very near future.

The whole thing started back on Wednesday, July 2nd, when I had an upset stomach and couldn’t eat anything. But I felt better on Thursday, and the July 4th weekend was great. Then Sunday I had an upset stomach again and couldn’t keep anything down — I threw-up long after I had anything left in my system. But I still thought it was just the stomach flu at that point. By Monday the 7th, though, I knew something was seriously wrong and I went to the emergency room because I couldn’t get ahold of my doctor. I was completely doubled over and the pain in my lower right side was the worst thing I’ve ever felt in my life.

They decided right away that I had gall stones, even though I wanted them to rule out appendicitis and I kept telling them the pain was lower than where they were scanning with the ultrasound. They said the tests to rule out appendicitis were too expensive, and that with women over 30 who are overweight, the problem is always gallstones. But they decided they couldn’t see anything on the ultrasound because they weren’t radiologists, and wanted a real radiologist to give me one. They filled me up with pain medication and anti-nausea medication (but no antibiotics!!!!) and sent me home to wait for an appointment at Methodist East Medical plaza, which is way over on east Washington Street. The appointment was Wednesday morning, and Kathy drove me over there. By this point my appendix had already burst. It probably happened sometime late Monday in the hospital or on Tuesday while I was at home waiting to get an appointment.

To her credit, the radiologist at Methodist East realized what was really going on pretty quickly when I told her she wasn’t scanning where the pain was actually occurring. When she started to scan where the pain was, she said, “well that’s where the appendix is,” and then stopped to look at me, and left the room. I know she went to call and arrange an emergency CT scan at the Methodist South facility because she knew my appendix had already burst and I was probably in trouble at that point. So Kathy raced me to the south side, where they hustled me into the big donut tube and confirmed that I did have ruptured appendix. And they sent Kathy and I immediately back to the Methodist emergency room downtown with the x-rays of my oozing insides.

The first thing they said when we walked into the emergency room was “why didn’t you come in here on Monday when the pain started?” You should have seen the looks on their faces when I told them I had, and they sent me home.

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I’ve Been in the Hospital

I’ve been in the hospital all week. I went to the emergency room last Monday because I had a massive pain in my right side caused by appendicitis, and they mis-diagnosed it as gall stones. So while they were running me all over town to get tests at the various Methodist facilities, my appendix burst. So I’ve been stuck in a hospital bed all week while they tried to control the inflamation and get me in decent shape. I should go back in a few weeks to get my appendix removed.

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