Three Days After Surgery

I thought it would be a good idea to post an update while I'm awake enough to do so.  I am really not up to commenting on blogs although I have sat down to read them on occasion since I have been home.  I am still very tired & weak.  It is a huge effort to do much of anything.  The doctor told me my heart would hurt for a few days.  I'm not sure if it's hurting but my chest is very tight & my breathing is somewhat difficult.  It's as if I have pneumonia only without the coughing & chest congestion.  I'm not sure if this is what he meant by my heart hurting but I hope it goes away soon.

Please know that I have been greatly blessed by all your prayers.  God has definitely heard them.  I am not in a lot of pain.  The doctor was surprised that both upper portions of my heart were not affected by the "deformity" (or whatever you call it) that causes a-fib.  He just had to fix the right side.  Since this puzzled him a bit, he decided to check the lower portions of my heart & discovered an abnormality there that was causing my heart to flutter which he was able to repair.  As I understand it, this abnormality may have not been discovered it it wasn't for this puzzlement making him look further into my heart, so praise God!  I had a pretty bad time just before the surgery when they had to place a tube down my throat in order to place a camera into it to see if I had any clots in my heart.  I also had to be placed on a breathing machine during the surgery & I think they must have had some difficulty getting that tube in or out of my throat as it is quite sore & almost feels as if it has been scraped inside.  Swallowing is a bit difficult but it's getting better.  They placed some ports in various areas so they could access my heart ... one in my left leg, 2 in my right leg, & 2 in my neck.  They left them there for several hours after surgery.  I do not know why they did not remove them before they woke me up in the recovery room.  John couldn't believe it.  He only saw the neck ones & said they looked like bolts coming out of my neck like Frankenstein's monster had.  Three nurses stood around me & removed them all at the same time except for one of the ports which had to be removed after the others.  The pain when they were removed was unbelievable.  It was worse than any pain I've ever had in my life.  I just can't describe it to you.  I almost went into convulsions at one point.

We won't know if the surgery has been successful until 3 months go by.  I pray that it has been successful because I don't ever want to go through this or anything like it ever again.  The doctor usually keeps patients on their same dose of heart medication until he sees how things are going at the end of 3 months.  However, since the increase he tried in mine a few weeks before surgery caused me to have Parkinson-like tremors which still very faintly make an appearance, he decided to cut my usual dose in half.  So far, so good.

John has been taking very good care of me. I am sleeping a lot.  Last night I actually tried stitching for a bit.  I didn't accomplish much but I did get some stitches in.  I will try doing a bit more today if I can.

I ask for your continued prayers.