Surgery

 As Gary posted on our family chat--"No photos pre surgery--Too many and they all look the same..." We arrived by 7:00 for our 7:15 arrival time registration. As always, people were friendly, organized, and kind.  I had a Peripheral artery bypass surgery using plastic tubing for the bypass as planning. It lasted about 3 hours.  When the doctor and his PA came in to talk to me, the doctor described the surgery as "boring" and that is exactly how you want things to go.  No surprises, artery worked well as they sewed in the bypass and blood traveled through the bypass exactly like it should.  All good news.

There was even talk about me going home on Friday but that didn't work out as I had digestive problems most of Friday which made me miserable for that day.  But I was able to do two walks on Thursday and also two more on Friday plus a long one with a PT on Saturday which allowed me to be discharged on noon on Saturday.

The nurses and all of the staff was so great.  The food was good even though I didn't appreciate much of it. And I had a room with a great view of the city of Ogden including the Thursday night rainstorm.

First time standing up

After the storm

For those of you who like the gritty medical stuff (no photos) but I have two incisions--each about 4 inches long.  One at my crotch and one on my lower inside thigh,  They have layers of dissolvable stitches plus glue on top.

Because I had been in a hospital in Washington within the last 60 days, the hospital staff had to put on the yellow disposable clothes each time they came into my room.  There are 10 states currently who are flagged due to measles and some other communicable diseases and a yeast infection which is frequently picked up in hospitals (my test came back negative AFTER we got home).  I felt sorry for them to have to grow up each time they came in.

Christine, the PA who followed my care in the hospital and also will do our follow up appointments was great.  Her council was to let your leg dictate how much you use it and when you should rest.  Another PA who helped in surgery told me that I needed to be super strict about not being up more than 20 minutes at a time.  But both were clear that when I was sitting or laying my leg needed to be propped up with pillows. 

One fun thing was that one of our nurses (Friday morning when I was very sick) was Brittney Sloan, who lived down the street from us in Syracuse years and years ago.  It was fun to talk to her and catch up on her and her family since they left Syracuse, probably 16 years ago. Small world and a great connection.

So I got home on Saturday, the 16th, and have been in recovery mode mostly since then.  The biggest surprise at discharge was no driving for 4 weeks.  What?? I hadn't prepared myself for that.  But Gary has been a great taxi driver as I have begun to engage back in life.  And last week when I had a 2 week check up with the PA, Christine, she said I could start driving short trips and just see how my leg manages.

It is about 3 1/2 weeks since the surgery when I am writing this and my recovery is going fine.  I have managed to do the big things I had on my calendar, cook dinner most nights, and I have kept reading lots of books with my leg propped up.

Oh, yes, the oxygen--apparently the next little health journey I get to explore in the coming weeks. I was sent home from the hospital with an order for night time oxygen, because whenever I fell asleep or sometimes even when I was just relaxing, my o2 levels would drop.  They asked me to follow up with my primary care doctor which we did the week following surgery.  I assumed that it was just the effects of surgeries one on top of the other.  Our doctor ordered an overnight oximeter which we were able to do a few days later.

This past week, I got a call from the office of the sleep doctor that the test had been sent to and they would like to do a complete sleep test in their office.  Yuck---and yes, they would like me to keep using the oxygen until they do the sleep study and determine what is going one and what should be done to correct it. Apparently, my results were severely disordered.  My health journey continues....

So, this is my view several times a day, sitting in the recliner with my leg propped up.  (Notice my cute p.j. pants--bought for the occasion of my surgery.) 

I have worked up to walking 25 minutes for my morning walk in the neighborhood and hope to move that to 45 minutes this week or next and hoping to "graduate" to the local park later in the week.

It is a bit slower to heal when you are 70 rather than 37 (last time I had surgery that required incisions on my body.), but it is a "boring" recovery which is good news, too.