Sunday ; Post-Operative Day 9
Mostly sunny and mild.
While Joanne did outdoor work today, I tried to do outdoor "exercise". I was not as successful as I would have liked. I have been struggling with extreme shortness of breath when outside in cold air, and when lying down in bed. This afternoon and evening I continued slowly reviewing the large amount of heart surgery information provided to me upon discharge. And I discovered that I may have been using my respirometer incorrectly.
I think the problem has been that there is a build up of fluids around my lungs, and I am not doing my deep breathing exercises correctly, or as frequently as I should. Tonight
I tried to correct that. I hope I didn't "overdo" it. The fluids around my lungs seems to have diminished a bit tonight, easing my breathing ability, but ... my lungs and chest muscles and sternum are all sore from the increased exercising.
This afternoon Joanne changed my dressings. I think things look good. Still some "oozing" from both the chest incision and arm incision. But the "oozing" does not appear to be infected.
Monday ; Thanksgiving ( Canada )
Sunny and cool.
I am exhausted by ongoing insomnia, and disruption to my body's rhythms. And I have decided to discontinue taking pain killer medication as of today. I have always felt that my body functions more poorly the more medications I subject it to. And this coronary bypass surgery has resulted in the addition of an enormous amount of new drugs being put into my body on a daily basis. It seems that most of them will be permanent additions to my medications, and I'm worried about that.
I accomplished more outdoor exercise today. I walked about a thousand feet outdoors, with two brief rest stops. When I was done Jeanine came over to visit for the first time since I have returned home from the hospital. < sigh > The last time I saw Bo alive was two weeks ago when I dropped him off at Jeanine's to be dog sat while we went to Kelowna for my angiogram.
Tuesday ; Daniel's 63rd Birthday
Sunny and cool..
My dysfunctional sleep pattern continues. I sleep for an hour and a half, then I'm up for about an hour. I go through that cycle about three times each night. The problem is fluid build up around my lungs. I have been quite unsuccessful in breaking down and getting rid of the fluids / mucous that collect around the lungs following surgery. I can't remain lying on my back because I experience burning around my lungs and a sensation of drowning, an inability to breathe.
This morning I phoned Medipac, our travel medical insurer to "officially" advise them of a change in my health since I purchased our travel medical insurance from them last summer for this winter's travel. Of course, our travel medical insurance policies were cancelled as a result of my triple bypass surgery, but ... the news was not as bad as
I expected it might be. I am disqualified for travel medical insurance for one year from the date ( October 4 ) that I was discharged from the hospital following my surgery. SO ... I should be eligible to purchase travel medical insurance as of October 5, 2018 !
I made some phone calls to obtain delivery and installation of a large propane tank for our home. We have never been here for the winter, so the furnace has never been used, and we've never needed a large propane tank. Five years ago I purchased and installed a sixty pound propane tank to provide propane for the oven during the summer. A full sixty pound tank lasts almost a full six month summer season.
Around lunch time we headed into Keremeos. I had a meeting with the manager of Similkameen Pharmacy to discuss all the new medications I am taking. Then we went to the Keremeos Diagnostic & Treatment Center to have my incisions examined and dressings changed. We went to the local insurance agency and renewed the registration of Harvey the fifth wheel trailer. Then ... I sent Joanne to the nearby water jug refill machine, and told her I would walk over there and meet her, The roads in town are flat and asphalt, and I thought it would be a good opportunity to do some walking exercise. By the time I reached the water jug refill machine, Joanne was not yet finished refilling our five gallon water jug, so ... I kept walking. She picked me up about fifteen hundred feet down the road.
When we returned to Riverside RV Park Resort, she parked our minivan beside our park's woodworking shop. While I got a bit more walking exercise there, again on flat asphalt, Joanne harvested wild Shaggy Mane Mushrooms, which had sprouted this morning. She had promised to make me my favourite spaghetti and meat sauce recipe for my birthday dinner tonight and now ... WOO-HOO ... it was going to have freshly picked, wild Shaggy Mane Mushrooms in it. MMMMM ... it was great ! Thank you, my love !
My sister phoned to wish me Happy Birthday. And find out how my recovery is progressing. We chatted for a very long time. Then our friends Laszlo and Gail in Kamloops phoned. I had asked them to phone tonight, to discuss their upcoming "migration" trip to Yuma, Arizona. I wanted to ask them to make an overnight stop here, then transport some small items for us to our winter home in Yuma.
Wednesday ; Sunny and cool.
I spent the morning on the phone, making medical appointments and shopping for snow tires for our minivan. I cleaned and treated Ozzie's ears, and decided to brush his teeth for the first time. I failed ! His teeth are in horrible condition. And it was obviously painful for him when I attempted to brush his teeth. Poor Ozzie ! He is about 13½ years old, and it appears to me as if he has never had any dental care ; no brushings, no cleanings.
This afternoon we all piled into the minivan, and Joanne drove us a very short distance ... to park in front of our RV park's woodworking shop. That gave me a nice, long, straight, flat stretch of road to walk on, from the park's front gate to the stop sign at the end of the main entrance road. While I slowly walked for exercise, Joanne took Ozzie for a long walk. I could walk from the front gate to our minivan, or the stop sign to our minivan, then sit on the tailgate and rest for as long as I needed.
This afternoon I supervised Joanne's efforts to prepare a location for a large propane tank we are having delivered. We decided that the best location for the tank will be in a corner of Joanne's herb garden. SO ... the rock border had to be removed, chives and thyme had to be relocated, and a thirty inch square section had to be levelled and gravelled. My inability to do anything physical, and my care giving needs, makes me a full time job ... with heavy lifting ... for Joanne.
For supper Joanne cooked a couple of Rainbow Trout I caught in the Similkameen River a few weeks ago. MMMMM !
Thursday ; our 43rd Anniversary
Sunny and chilly.
Around 11 AM we left home heading for Penticton. We arrived at Peach Tree Medical & Urgent Care Centre around noon. I waited almost an hour and a half to see a doctor for my first post discharge check up. While I waited, Joanne went to run errands. She returned shortly before I was seen by a doctor. First the doctor removed my chest and arm dressings to inspect the incisions. He was impressed enough with their healing that he decided they no longer need to be covered by dressings. Then he removed the stitches from the four chest tube holes in my abdomen. No problems there ! He wrote a prescription to extend the diuretic medication, and we were done.
We went for lunch to the food court in the mall where the medical clinic is located. After lunch we drove to a nearby medical laboratory and I had blood drawn, as ordered by today's doctor. From there ... it was time to go home. We stopped in Keremeos and Joanne dropped off my diuretic prescription at the pharmacy, then we returned home, arriving about 4 PM. I was so exhausted I felt ill ! < sigh >
I slept for a couple of hours ! After supper I worked on some month end investment file updating. Not much of an anniversary celebration !
Friday ; Cloudy and cool, raining lightly in the morning.
This morning our neighbour Lyle came over to help me finish a job I had started before going to the hospital for an angiogram / bypass surgery. Under my supervision he did the work to install a new entry door threshold on our neighbour / friend Jeanine's entry door. The job took much longer than I had expected it would. It seemed to me that Lyle's pace of work is slower than mine. Maybe it just seemed to take such a long time because I'm so ill. In any case, by the time we were done I was WAY beyond my endurance limit, and feeling very ill. When I got back home I went to sleep for a long time.
We were expecting delivery of a large propane tank today. Early in the day the propane company's truck drove into the park, carrying four large propane tanks. Much later, it left again, with one tank still on the truck. HUH ? We waited for awhile, thinking that maybe the driver was just leaving for a lunch break, then we phoned them. Yes, yes ... they had indeed screwed up ! < sigh > They will deliver a tank to us later next week !
I sneezed today, the second time since my bypass surgery. YIKES ... that hurts !
Saturday ; Cold, raining lightly all day, a few snowflakes in the morning.
After the time consuming and energy consuming processes of getting cleaned up and having breakfast in the morning ... < sigh > ... Joanne bundled me up like that little Winnipeg kid from the late 1950's, and I went walking outside. She took Ozzie for a walk. When Ozzie and I were finished with our walks ... surprisingly I outlasted Ozzie ... although he certainly did outdistance me ... HA HA HA ... Joanne and Ozzie left to go to Penticton for a day of running errands.
I napped. I heated a bowl of soup for lunch. I napped. I did some annual investment work. I napped.
Today is post-operative day 15. I'm still extremely weak. Tired all the time, but sleeping poorly, especially at night. I am always short of breath, especially when lying down. I am continuing to fail to be able to expel the fluids built up around my lungs, and I'm worried about that. However ... on a more positive note ... my chest and arm incisions are healing well. As are the four, big, ugly, chest tube holes. My mangled, burned, left testicle has almost finished healing. I still don't know how that "surgical injury" happened !
Joanne and Ozzie returned home at 6:30 PM just as it turned dark. Joanne immediately took me ( and Ozzie ) for a walk. She parked the minivan by the woodworking shop, and while she walked Ozzie, I stumbled along the flat section of entrance road from the park gate to the stop sign.
DSK
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