Hi,
Hope this isn't too boring.
Bit more rested now. Living under very strict rules about what I can do. Sitting in a chair or laying in bed seems to be about the only things I can do that makes everyone happy. Early days yet but I feel like I'm being treated like an unexploded bomb.
Anyway, to give you the missing details of what happened in hospital while I had no internet connection. I found I was the youngest person in my ward in the Cardiac Care Unit. Most in there had had previous treatment there.
As I said before, I was transferred to this unit Saturday lunchtime because they believed my problem was with my heart and wanted me to have closer monitoring and more regular checks. I was in a better place because if anything dramatic happened, everything was on hand to deal with the crisis and give me the best possible care.
On Saturday night I slept much better, partly because I'd slept so little on Friday night. One thing I did find is that I seemed to sleep most of the day too. If I tried to stand (with assistance), I found I was very dizzy and if I had a trip to the bathroom, by the time I returned to my bed I was totally exhausted and usually slept for a couple of hours. Visiting hours were restricted to 2pm till 4pm and 6pm till 8pm compared to an open door policy in the previous ward. I had internet connection on Saturday but none from then on, so I felt a bit isolated. When I could receive messages, they helped me so much. Thank you.
On Sunday, the consultant decided that on Monday they were going to carry out an angiogram to try and find out what my problem was.
For those that don't know (which would have included me before this weekend) an angiogram is where they feed a catheter into an artery via a cut in your wrist up into the heart, injecting a radioactive dye so they can see what happening via a scanner. All this is done under local anaesthetic so your very aware of everything that's going on. Have to admit, I wasn't looking forward to it, but if that's what was needed to make me better, I was prepared to put up with anything.
Monday came and I was seen by a different consultant who decided that when he carried out the angiogram, he would like to try and fix any problems he found straight away if he could. Couldn't promise anything but said he would try his best. The only thing that concerned him greatly was my earlier bleeding issue. Because they would have to give me anti clotting drugs, it would cause me real problems if I started to bleed from the rectum again because they wouldn't be able to stop it easily. In the end, he decided to give me the drugs early to see how would react and put me on the end of his list. I was really keen for the op to go ahead because I just wanted to be sorted. Only problem about being last was that I had to listen to the graphic details from the three others who were having the same thing, it made you feel a bit nervous.
Anyway, fortunately, I reacted well to the drugs and I was wheeled into the treatment area for my big moment. First thing that happened was that I was injected with anaesthetic in my wrist, then cut and the catheter inserted into my artery and feed up into my heart. A weird feeling but slightly worst was to follow as the radioactive dye was injected into my heart. It was the only painful moment of the whole operation but only lasted for a few seconds. At every stage I was told what was happening or about to happen. They examined the picture on the scanner and after the team had had a couple of minutes discussion, the consultant explained what they'd found. He said that it was slightly more complicated than he suspected beforehand. He said my problem was that my right coronary artery was completely blocked, which he thought was very recent but he found my left coronary artery was almost completely blocked too. He told me that my choices were that they could stop the procedure now and keep me in hospital until they could do a double bypass operation or he could expand the blocked arteries and insert a stent which would kept them open. He said that I may have to wait until next week before the bypass could be done but said that the other way would be the simpler solution. I agreed to the stent option but then he said that he could do the right one now but because of my past bleeding incident, it would be far riskier to do the left one at the same time. He said he would do it but it was my decision. Decided to have the right side done and ten minutes later it was all done. The consultant said everything had gone well and showed me "before" and "after" pictures on the screen. I was amazed the difference they had made to my blood flow.
I was soon back on the ward, the whole process had taken just over 45 minutes and I felt fine. They checked my blood pressure every thirty minutes and I was amazed, it was almost perfect. What a change. As soon as I was allowed after about two hours, I walked to the bathroom, unaided and no dizziness but slightly weak. I think, feeling weak was to be expected after being in bed for four days. Others in the ward said they were amazed by my transformation.
During the night I found I only slept for about 4 hours, I just didn't feel tired anymore. I worked out that I probably had been sleeping about 20 hours a day, now I was back to normal, felt I had so much more energy.
Tuesday morning, I saw the consultant, he was very pleased with the result and thought I was well enough to go home. The nurses came and talked to me about everything I should know about how I should live my life now. They questioned me about diet and were pleased with how I'd changed that since my cancer diagnosis. I was given complete details of everything that had happened to me including the pictures I'd been shown after the op. I was impressed with the amount of info they gave me.
Late afternoon, I was picked up by my wife along with my eldest daughter and my wonderful grandson.
In summary, I have to say that my hospital experience was a very pleasant one. All the staff were very friendly, caring and did a superb job. I was so impressed. I couldn't have expected better. I was really surprised by the food, it was really first class and plenty of choice. I would recommend the hospital to anyone.
I will be seeing the consultant in about four weeks time, if I've had no problem with bleeding, he will correct the other artery, early in the new year.
I had a phone call this morning from a member of the cardiac rehabilitation team to say she is visiting me next Monday. They will guide me through my recovery and get me fit again.
Thinking about the whole experience, I think I've been very lucky. What happened, would have happened anyway in the future. It could have happened somewhere where help wasn't available as quickly and the outcome may not have been so good.
I'm now going to have to buy another folder to keep all the heart attack info alongside the cancer one. Do I need to buy two, just in case? Knowing my luck recently, who knows what will come along next?
Thanks for reading.
Steve
Edited by member 27 Nov 2014 at 08:14
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