Getting better, but still not ready for the elliptical

When I first posted my surgery update, I got a scolding from my husband who states that my comments were quite one-sided & failed to show my faults with my recovery. His biggest beef was that I failed to mention that I thought that I should use the elliptical machine to get my exercise in. In my defense, the recommendation is that when you first come home that you go for a series of short little walks. It was a crappy day & I had said that I would have to use the elliptical to get my walks in. Brad asked me to show him anywhere in the recommendations it talks about going up & down- which would be a requirement if I was to use the elliptical. Brad was almost going to camp out at home until Mom got here to be sure that I told her I am not allowed to use the elliptical. It is now almost 3 weeks later & I have to admit that I still am not in a position to get on the elliptical. I still get a little light-headed sometimes & I am pretty sure that being on the elliptical when I feel that way is not the safest idea. So Brad, you were right.

Otherwise things are pretty good. Last week I had a bug that kind of wiped me out for awhile, but starting to feel better again. Today I bundled up for my walk & introduced a small hill & could manage to do it without it taking too much effort. So, I think I will do that route again tomorrow. All the scabbing is gone from my scar & it looks much better, but it is a funny colour at the top (I will be questioning the doctor about when I see her).


I have to go for regular blood work to determine how much Warfarin (anti-coagulant drug) I am to be taking & I still have not leveled out there. My INR results are still dropping and have not leveled out. That stresses me out a bit, because everything I read says how I am supposed to be between 2.5-3.5 & my last result came back at 1.9 (ikes!). So, I am praying that the change in medication today results in the number we want to see on Thursday for my blood work. If I am ever going to get to needing bloodwork only once a month- we need to get my levels right! Fingers crossed.

Skate Blades Through the Decades

Rockin' Robin

Yesterday was Sydney's skating carnival. Thankfully she was in the 1st half, because I do not think the twins or Jason would have lasted another hour. We were the bad people that escaped at the intermission. I would have liked Sydney to be able to see the whole thing, but it would have come at a cost to everyone around us with crying children who no longer wanted to be held.

I did not get any pictures of Sydney in action because the environment was not conducive to a good picture, but I did fork out the money to get a copy of the photographer's shots of her & her group. Brad & I were very proud of her performance. When she came out she was concentrating very hard & talking to herself- I would have loved to know what she was saying. She almost forgot to wave to the crowd, but remembered as she was leaving the ice. She made a great deal of improvement in the last few months- so much so that I think that she will be eager to sign up again next year. Yeah!!!

Some of the fans. Note Jason's pin.
You can't see Brad, Papa or Nana, but they were there too.

To Regan & Aunt Kim...Thank You

Your dress up clothes made it here safely & Sydney likes them very much.

To Brad's dismay, Jason is quite fascinated by the heels & can walk in them quite well! :)

[I also wish to say thank you for my book. Jodi Picoult is becoming rich because of me!]

Save the best until last

People are typically one of two types when it comes to eating:

• those who eat their favourite first
  
• those who save the best for last

As a child, I typically ate what I liked the best first. Sydney, as you can clearly see saves her favourite part for last.

My very sweet little girl

It somehow doesn't seem right to have a post where all I do is say good things about Sydney right after I post about Jason driving me crazy with the chatter, but Sydney over the last week has done some very sweet things. To name a few, they are:

• did not want to walk the long way home from day care because she thought it would be too far for me


• was sad that a boy (Yamin) was moving away in her class, so drew him a picture to tell him that she would miss him


• was concerned that no one spent the day with me today because "what would you do if you needed something today and me or Daddy were not there to take care of you?"


• cried at supper time when I told her that we did not have Yamin's address for her to mail a letter to & she was all worried that he would forget about her if she did not write to him
• randomly asks you for a hug & tells you that she loves you

She is a sensitive little girl & although I will admit that I can get frustrated with how easily she can be upset, there are moments like these that I am so thankful that she is the way she is.

The Chatter!!!

Yesterday was Jason's day to be with Mom & since Mom spent the day with me, well it was my day with Jason too. What I learned about Jason after a day without Sydney is that the boy does not shut up! I realize that is not a very nice word especially when you are talking about your own child, but by the end of the day that was the only word that could describe it. By the end of the day I tend to be rather tired, so my patience is not great- so I will use that as an excuse for using such a non-nice word. There was not even relief during naptime because he only napped for 30 minutes! It was a day of constant chatter. Thankfully he is not always talking to you & is just talking during play, but I could not believe how much he talked!!! Brad claims that he has been like this for awhile, but I don't think I have ever experienced a day like yesterday.

Development-wise it is great that he is talking so much & putting words together in so many different ways, but the problem is that on a day like yesterday I would say that I only understood 40% of what he says during play. When he is talking to us, the percentage increases to about 60%, but his banter during play??? Well, it is anyone's guess what he is saying.

Progress

I am repeatedly told that I don't look like a recovering heart patient, which although is nice to hear it is partly coloured by two facts:

• how many recovering heart patients do people really know?
• for those that you do know, how old are they?

Overall I am feeling pretty good. The mornings are pretty good- I generally feel like myself. My biggest complaint is still the pain in my neck (literally) and my reduced range of motion in my shoulder & neck area. I can't really go to a massage therapist yet, so I am still just using warmth & trying to stretch. The last of the scabs on my incisions fell off this weekend, so I can return to wearing clothing that covers my chest area. The incision looks pretty good & can hardly be seen when wearing a button-up top.

My goal for myself today was to walk to our library & I had my rescue ride queued up in the event I could not make it home. Going to the library will be no problem- it is down hill most of the way. Therefore, the walk home will be trickier with it being uphill. I spent too much time this morning doing email for work (my plan is to do an hour a day) & talking on the phone, so when it came time to go for my walk I knew that I was too tired to make it back. Once noon hits, my energy level definitely starts to slide.

So, for my walk I went to the jewelery store around the corner to check out their medical alert bracelets. Not thrilled to have to wear one, but also not interested in bleeding to death in the event that I am in an accident. I saw some that were OK & was happy to see that I could order in white gold- until I saw how much more a white gold one will cost vs. a sterling silver. The economy sure isn't touching the value of gold right now. Geesh.

When I returned home I tried to take a nap, but that was not successful either. Not enough energy to do too much, but not tired enough for a nap either. So instead I started examining my CDs to see what I could rip onto my MP3 player, catching up on family blogs, and posting to you. Sydney arrives home in less than an hour, so I don't have much time to fill. One of the best parts of my recovery is having the opportunity to walk with her to the bus in the morning & this week she decided she wanted to come home to me rather than go to daycare. So we get a bit of time together before we go get her brother from daycare. Jo's is only a 10 minute walk if we cut through the park, so I can manage that with the kids without any difficulty. Last week when I first walked home with Sydney I asked her if she wanted to cut through the park or take the sidewalk home (which is longer). She told me that we should go through the park because taking the sidewalk would be too far for me to walk. What a sweetie, trying to take care of her mom.

Heart Surgery...Complete

As most of you already know, today marks 1 week since I had my valve-replacement surgery. Last Monday I got a call from my surgeon's office asking if I could come in for pre-op Wednesday & surgery on Thursday. Since I was eager just to get it over with & move on and Brad said that this week worked as well as any, I jumped in with both feet. Well, once I agreed to the Thursday operation, it turned into a Wednesday operation & I had to be in Toronto by Tuesday afternoon. Very, very quick- but less time for me to fret about it.

Tuesday night my surgeon, Dr. Tyrone David (who we heard over & over again is an outstanding surgeon), met with Brad & I and said that there is a small chance that once he gets in there, my pulmonary valve may have the same defect and he will not be able to use it to swap out my aorta valve. If that was the case what did I want him to do? I said, "You're asking me this now?!?!?" Meaning of course the night before surgery & his smart response was, "You don't want me waking you up in surgery to ask, do you?" Funny man, right?

So, I stated what I understood my options to be with the question being what was the chance of surgery for each & he filled that blank. So, if I could not have the Ross Procedure, my options were:

• Tissue valve (pig or cow), would require no medication afterwards, but surgery to replace the valve would be in 10-15 yrs
• Mechanical valve, requires taking Coumadin (anti-coagulation medication) daily for the rest of my life, but chance of surgery to replace the valve is minimal

So, I told him that I would be willing to change my daily living with the mechanical valve in the hopes that I never need to have surgery again. He said the chances of my pulmonary valve were quite small (about 5%), but apparently we should have bought a lottery ticket that day because my pulmonary valve could not be used. When he got in there he noted that the pulmonary valve was about 15% bigger than it should be & therefore should not be swapped with the aorta because it would need to be replaced within 10 years because it would not withstand the pressure.

My surgery was at noon on Wednesday and lasted for just over 3 hours. I spent the night in Cardiac Intensive Care Unit and was back on the ward by 10am Thursday morning. I don't remember too much about Wednesday or Thursday morning without someone saying something & then I can remember, but all in all things went well. By Thursday afternoon they had me up sitting in a chair & walking to the bathroom. No rest for the weary. The pain meds they had me on totally whacked me out so by Friday afternoon I wasn't taking them anymore. I switched to plain old Tylenol. It seemed to take awhile to get them out of my system, because I cannot tell you how tired I was & I think a lot of it was from those drugs.

On Saturday was the first I got to shower & that will always make you feel like a million bucks afterwards. The during, not so much as I was wrapped in Saran Wrap to keep the pacemaker wires that were still connected to me dry & my IV line. I am not a sexy picture in Saran... Having a shower also completely knocked me out, I needed a nap afterwards. I wasn't really up for visitors until the weekend ( due to my drug-induced haze) and then of course did not want to encourage too much because I was still really tired. I also didn' t want to be too tired for Sunday because Brad was bringing the kids & I wanted to be at my best for them.

The kids arrived around lunch on Sunday & I could tell that Brad had schooled them on the "rules" for being around Mom. They were both very gentle & very good. Jason of course needs more reminders than Sydney, but everything considered they both did very well. I was happy to be in real clothes for the first time because I thought that would be very important for seeing them. You just "look" sicker in a hospital gown. We spent most of the afternoon in the Atrium beside my ward with the kids as it would not be very nice for my roommate to listen to two bored, anxious kids. I also had quite a few visitors that day, so best to receive them in a beautiful outdoor-like experience than a dingy hospital room.

Not a great picture, but here is one of us in the Atrium.

They give you a heart shaped pillow to hold when getting out of bed & coughing.

On Monday, I got discharged...YEAH!!! I was home by 3:30pm & being tended to by Brad which quickly showed signs of being a problem. :) As many of you know, Bradley is very much a rules man. If it says you need to do something a certain way, that is the way that you do it (and yes, I know that I am a rule person to, but not in the same way) and he was not looking at the full picture. Our first altercation came on the stairs. He would not let me go alone & when I went up, he told me that I need to only take one step at a time (meaning that I am to plant 2 feet before going up again). Prior to this there has been many little corrections or insistence that I do something, so I calmly told him that he cannot nag at every detail. Up to our bathroom is only 6 steps, I went slowly & things were fine.

Our second altercation came with the meds. I need to take iron tablets & the pharmacy did not put instructions on the label as it is over the counter. Brad was comparing what he got from the pharmacist with my discharge summary pages. In the iron row it stated that the dosage was supposed to be 300mg & that I am to take it 3 times daily. The pill bottle for the iron stated 35mg tablets, so when Brad got my meds ready he had counted out 8 tablets!!! I told him that was wrong, there is no way I am supposed to take that much iron. I would not see the bathroom for a week (if not more!). He of course is saying that is the dosage on the sheet, I am telling him that there is no way I am to take that much iron & that he should call the pharmacist. So, after dinner he did & although the tablets are 35mg, they contain 100mg of iron & I am to take 1 tablet 3 times daily, which is what I thought. I had told Brad that there is no way he would have ever gotten me to take that much iron. He still thinks it is funny. We've gotten over that hurdle & on a nice routine now.

Mom has stayed with me this week & is keeping me company, fed, laundered & all the wonderful things that moms do for you. Yesterday she took me for a haircut (which was so badly needed) and today she took me to Costco. Too windy to walk outside, so we went for a walk indoors. Tomorrow we are off to the doctor's and Friday will be groceries. At this point, one activity is enough to wipe me out. I have a good 2 hour nap in the afternoon.

Since I wanted to keep the memory & I know some of you will be curious, Mom took a discreet picture of my incision. It is much smaller than I would have thought (thankfully), probably about 4 inches. One of the volunteers told me that he had surgery 4 years ago & that he can hardly see his scar & that makes me very hopeful. The 2 incisions below are from the chest tubes & there is still a lot of tape marks that I still need to scrub off. I focused on my arms & wrists (which are so bruised too) first as that is what people would see most.