so cool and SO informative.
How often do you go into open heart surgery (or any surgery for that matter), are knocked out for 8+ hours and have a clear idea of what is happening to your body during that time?
....yeah, never.
There were a few things I remember leading up to the surgery:
-waking up stinking early the day of and taking a cab to the hospital
-waiting in one room and then being shifted to another room where Dad and Joel came with me. In the second waiting room I put on my robe, went to the bathroom (yeah, as if that was needed as just moments later they put in the catheter, ha!), took out my contacts, and waited to be called into the O.R.
-a nurse then escorted me down the hall and into the O.R. I couldn't see a thing without my glasses or contacts, so I remember hanging onto his elbow
-we walked into the O.R. and the nurses and docs had me lay down on the bed
-they spoke to me for awhile telling me a bit about what would happen during the surgery and then told me they were going to put the anesthesia mask on. They continued to ask me questions about basically nothing, then... I. was. out.
After that...I have not a clue what happened.
So, Joel and I went to this demo to find out what the heck they did to me!
This was certainly not for those with a queasy stomach.
The doctor giving the demo showed us a video of my awesome doc in the O.R. and some basics of what he does along with shots of the heart/lung bypass machine. (a pic) wow.
He also passed around:
--a chest tube (also: here and here) which is "used to remove fluid from the space between the lungs and the wall of the chest. The tube is placed between the ribs and into the space between the inner and outer lining of the lungs".
--a pace maker
--the wire attached to your heart during and after surgery. I don't remember the name of it, (AICD? Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator?) but it helps maintain the electrical current of the heart...similar use as a pace maker, but it's temporary
--and some other tools used (note the one in the top center, thats how they crank and keep ya open! wo.)
It was amazing to see and touch these items. (I did not have a pace maker put in, but it was still pretty neat to see what it was.)
He also told us some of the steps that happened after we are knocked out:
-they wash our whole body with a special anti-bacterial soap
-cover us up with the fancy blue sheets (one which had a special window just to the heart)
-cut open our skin, pry open the ribs, do the wee little op, and sew us back up!
Now, my surgery was a minimally invasive open heart surgery and not your traditional crack open the breast bone surgery. So instead of being on my back during the procedure, the docs had to roll me on my side and stretch the ribs open instead of just opening and closing the breast bone.
As the ribs shift back into place it is certainly pretty painful, but the recovery time for minimally invasive is shorter. With this, you can return to your normal life and activities pretty quickly.
There is less also scarring with minimal invasive,
I have an incision only about 4 inches long under my right breast:
(this pic was taken just 4 weeks after surgery, now, just over a year later... you can barely even see any of the scarring! woot! Vitamin E oil helps the scarring as well)
Needless to say this demo was incredible and very informative. Joel and I were the youngest ones in the room, but it was wonderful to be in a room full of supporters and folks who had been through the same thing and to learn more about what has happened to my body. Incredible.
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