Heart bypass surgery

[sahern]

Thee weeks ago I had a heart cath done to get back on the active transplant list.  What I thought was going to be a quick look and at the worst a stent which would keep me off the active list.  Well it turns out my arteries are 95% blocked.  I will need to have to have open heart surgery with four or five bypasses.  What fun.  The question I have is has anyone had this done and how did it work out.  Thanks for any replies.

[Simon Dog]

My father had a quad bypass over 30 years ago.  He's had numerous angioplasties since then (my doc tells me antioplasties are like potato chips), but has not had any heart attacks since the bypass so it must have worked.

My father in law lived for 35 years after his bypass and died of liver cancer.

[Michael Murphy]

Never by passed but had 8 stents inserted over the years,  the cardiologist told me once that they can fix anything if caught in time.

[sahern]

I had six stents put in just over a year ago, over a six month period.  For whatever reason they do not last.  The arteries keep closing down.  This time they would have to put in five.  They believe that using native arteries will keep them open a lot longer.  I hope it works I would like to get back on the active transplant list.

[kristina]

Hello sahern, I only can send you my good-luck-wishes as I have no experiences with stents etc.
I do send you my best wishes and hope yo get back at the transplant-waiting-list as soon as possible.
All the best from Kristina.

[kickingandscreaming]

That's a rough shock, sahern.  I'm sorry you have to go through with all this and I hope it goes without a hitch.

[justagirl2325]

My husband just had this done in September.  A quick look at his heart before transplant approval turned into a discover of 90% blockage of the main artery and a double by-pass.  He was in the hospital for a week, home for two weeks then back to work (he gets a bit stir crazy at home).  He couldn't lift anything over 10 pounds for 8-12 weeks but could drive and do light duty things.  Not going to lie, I don't think I've ever seen him in so much pain than when he was recovering the first couple of days.  But they gave him pain meds in the hospital that helped and sent him home with 30...he still has 5 left all these months later.  He's so much better off physically now than when he was before, I notice a huge difference in his stamina...just walking down the block was hard for him before the surgery now he can walk for hours.

[Charlie B53]

Mid Nov '06 while at a Wedding Reception for a Friends Daughter the Wife had a bit too much of the Bubbly and admitted to me that she had been having chest pains every afternoon at work in the High School Cafeteria.  Of course I was concerned and asked her if she had told her Dr.  No, and no plans to do so.  Every Dr visit she just shines him on, never admitting to anything.  Because I know how non-compliant she is about her Diabetus, come Monday morning I had a little conversation with her Dr.  He started calling her, leaving messages to call him back, make an appt, etc..  It took well over a week before she made the call, then refused an appt until a day that school was out so she wouldn't have to miss any work.  So that appt was almost ANOTHER month away.  I told her to pack a bag, cause when that day comes whe wold NOT be coming home from the Dr's office, she would be going straight to the Hospital.

The day finally came, I asked her if she wanted me to go with her.  No, I'll be fine.   Yeah, Right.

A few hours later she called me at work, Dr wants to know if you will come and take me to the Hospital, if not he's going to call an Ambulance.  I closed the shop and went after her.

The next morning she had a Quad.

This was late Nov.  I started asking questions of my Primary Dr, it didn't make sense that Wife has this as she is far more physically active than I, I am the Smoker, I am carrying extra weight, my cholesterol is sky high.  So started ordering tests.  First the treadmill and X-rays with contrast.  They had to hold me on the treadmill, I couldn't keep up.  The X-rays were not good.  A Cardiac Cath was ordered.  It was NOT good.  I was told to go home, take it very easy at work unitl a Surgery date came almost two weeks away.

The ground next to the house got all muddy, it hadn't rained in weeks. I had to dig out all that mud until I got down to the copper water line.  Had to make a huge hole as the sides kept sliding back in.   It took me a few days as I tire very easily.  Got it all exposed with a deeper hole for the excess water to run into, placed a piece of ruber around the pinhole and a hose clamp sealed it off.  Found that a nail discarded when the house was built some 20 odd years ago was laying against the copper line, galvanice corrosion had finally pinholed the tube causing this leak.
At work the next day the VA Hospital called and asked if I could come in that day as they were moving my Surgery date up to tomorrow, wanted me there immediately for tests.  This was maybe 10 a.m. I told them I would be lucky to get out of the shop by 5, I had things spread out that I couldn't leave undone.  OK.  Got there about 10 that night. This was maybe a week after my cath, over ten days prior to my original scheduled Surgery date.

They cracked my chest early the next morning, I don't remember much of the next few days. Surgery Tuesday, went home Saturday.  Dr explained how he had taken an artery inside my chest, diverted it to the backside of my heart, and taken two of the return veins, large ones in my thighs and used them to replace sections of aryeries feeding the front sides of my heart.  The backside occlusion I had was referred to as a Widow-Maker, my first heart attack would also have been my last.  People do not survive when the backside fails.

Oh Really?

So it must have been a good thing the Wife had all that Bubbly and got loose lipped, or I would never have started asking questions.  I would have continued being my normal self until I dropped dead.

Since then both the thigh grafts have totally occluded off.  I am fortunate again in that sufficient collateral arteries have grown out and around the blockage, supply those areas with blood and still have not had a heart attack.

If you need a By-Pass, get it done, it ain't worth dying.

If your cholesterol is high, change your Diet a little and take your meds.

If your Blood Pressure runs high, take your meds, walk, anything to help get it under better control.

The left side of my heart is greatly enlarged from the years of high blood pressure.  Who knows, this may have saved my life, but it also has contributed to killing my Kidneys.

Learn to take a little better care of yourself, and TELL other people as it can help them to improve and extend their lives also.

Sorry for the book.

Charlie B53

[Simon Dog]

artery inside my chest, diverted it to the backside of my heart

The internal mammary artery has better long term patency the sappheneous vein from the leg.

[sahern]

Thanks for the replies and support.  The surgery is on the Jan 31 this Tuesday.  The hardest thing about the whole thing for me, is my wife having to deal with this on her own.  Because of where we live (Fairbanks, Alaska) the surgery is 360 miles away from home in Anchorage, Alaska and we have no family in the area.  I guess it is better than when I had my transplant (23 years ago) I was down in El Paso, Tx and she was at home in Alaska with our first child that was only one year old.

[beep]

hey there  had 5 bypass surgery  18 yrs ago   no probs heart's going like a train  just go for it








sp mod Cas

[Michael Murphy]

What was strange was I was scheduled for knee replacement surgery and had a ekg and stress test and got approved, two weeks later I had a heart attack one week before knee surgery, then a week later I was released from the hospital and after a weekend and after a Monday dialysis treatment during the walk to my car I stopped being able to breath for about two minutes. It happened 3 more times that day for the last one I was hooked up to a monitor and it turned out to be v tach and a fib the v tach could have killed me so I was off for a 7.5 hour operation.  Now I am in Cardiac Rehab trying to regain lost function.   Cardiac means find the best doctors and follow the recommendations of your cardiologist.

[PrimeTimer]

sahern: Hope your surgery goes well. I've known two people who had bypass surgery and both said they felt immediately better when they woke up from surgery. They had a long recovery and had to do a lot of walking to help regain their strength but they looked a lot better and had more energy than before surgery. Hope yours is just as successful. Glad they caught the problem before anything worse happened.


Michael Murphy: If you don't mind me asking, what is involved in "cardiac rehab"? Do you have to work with a physical therapist or do they give you exercises to do at home? Sounds like you are doing well, that is very good news! Keep up the good work!

[Michael Murphy]

Cardiac Rehab is in  hospitals here in jersey.  It requires a approval of your cardiologist and is supervised by a staff of cardiac nurses and physical therapists,
My cardiologist gave them a maximum heart rate so they design the activities to reach that rate and maintain it for a hour.  I go three times a week generally 2 hours after dialysis. It lasts for 12 weeks and its purpose is to have the heart muscle gradually become stronger.  The only problem for me is even though I just started I get home at about 3:00 PM and fall asleep for about 4hours.  I am hopeful that this will improve as the 12 weeks go by.  My wife was not happy that I was doing this on dialysis days but if I didn't I would be doing medical stuff for 6 days a week.

[PrimeTimer]

Cardiac Rehab is in  hospitals here in jersey.  It requires a approval of your cardiologist and is supervised by a staff of cardiac nurses and physical therapists,
My cardiologist gave them a maximum heart rate so they design the activities to reach that rate and maintain it for a hour.  I go three times a week generally 2 hours after dialysis. It lasts for 12 weeks and its purpose is to have the heart muscle gradually become stronger.  The only problem for me is even though I just started I get home at about 3:00 PM and fall asleep for about 4hours.  I am hopeful that this will improve as the 12 weeks go by.  My wife was not happy that I was doing this on dialysis days but if I didn't I would be doing medical stuff for 6 days a week.

Thanks for answering, Michael. Sounds like you've got a wonderful cardiologist. I would think exercising just after dialysis is better than on days in-between treatments when you have more fluid on-board. My husband always says he feels best just after dialysis. He goes straight to work after treatment but has a short nap later in the evening after dinner and then gets back up to watch tv or runs errands. Glad you have a cardiac team helping you get back into shape. I am sure it will pay off. 

[sahern]

Sorry it has been so long since I posted.  The surgery it self went well but the recovery was a bit rocky.  During the recovery they had trouble with my blood pressure.  It would either get to high or drop out to almost nothing.  It would stabilize for a couple of days and than have problems again.  Some of it was from dialysis they were using red bags for a while and it was causing problems.  When I finally got them to go back to my normal treatment with added dwells everything started to stabilize.  Never had to go on hemo so I got lucky.  In total I ended up spending 17 days in the hospital and the had to stay in a hotel for a week because we live 350 miles from the hospital.  Every thing is going great now that I have been home for a couple of weeks.  Can not wait for the snow to melt so I can get out and get the boat ready for fishing this spring.

[PrimeTimer]

Glad to know your surgery went well. Congrats! And the fact that you are already wanting to do physical things must be a good sign that it was a success. Hope you go out and catch a boatload of fish! Cod, Halibut, Salmon? Anything from up there in those waters would be great! Please keep us posted on your progress (and the fishing..hee,hee..)

[Charlie B53]

After my By=pass I also had BP problems as the Dr's had changed all my BP meds.  We had finally came upon a mixture that worked for me and now they had to go and change it!  Claimed I HADTO have the new meds because of my heart.  Well, that wacked out my BP's for another almost a year before we figured out what combination of newer/different meds would work for me.  Seems every number of years I go through something like this.  Dr can't seem to leave well enough alone, and just has to change something and screw me all up again for too long before I get worked out again.

[sahern]

Right now I am taking almost no blood pressure meds and seems weird to me.  After taking blood Pressure meds for so long I almost want my blood pressure to go back up to "normal" so I go back to my normal med routine.

[redrider]

i  been put in  on dialysis going on 4 years  had a pacmaker our body slowly goes down hill