Shhh, It's a secret!

Recovery

Recovery from catherization with angioplasty and insertion of a stent starts as soon as the procedure ends. The patient (me of course) has to lay flat on their back for a couple of hours. During that time the staff gingerly helps to transfer the patient to a gurney for transfer to a room. Once in the room, vitals such as blood pressure, temperature and pulse (along with a telemetric heart monitor) are monitored every 15 minutes. Basically, a nurse sits by your bedside and watches you. I actually wore a blood pressure cuff and that little light thingy on my finger most of that day. In my case, I had a male nurse that was joking the whole time. He made the whole experience much easier for me with that and by explaining everything in detail along the way.

One of the things he explained was that if I had to sneeze, cough or laugh I had to place my hand where the still inserted catheter was in my leg and hold it. This was to minimize its movement and to aid in its removal and sealing the incision later on. The problem was that the way he joked around, I had to grab the thing every couple of minutes! Obviously, that was intentional as it helped me to remember to do it.

All this time, I was still hooked up to a fluid IV and it caused me to want to urinate very often. I don’t know about you but it aint easy to pee lying flat on your back – try it some time. I actually had to have my wife hold my penis and aim it into the jug they give you to catch it. As hard as that sounds, it’s even harder when there are other people watching. I guess I had a form of performance anxiety. At some point, I had to give in and let the nurse hold my penis while I peed! I have to say, that was humiliating but when you have to go and there is no one else but the nurse to help, you’d do it too.

Along the way, your body starts to hurt from lying in one position so long. I really felt it in my lower back and butt.

About two hours after the procedure, the worst of the whole thing has to happen, the nurse removes the catheter! That may sound like it’s a good thing and it is, but it’s painful.

Two nurses teamed up to remove it. They began with removing the temporary dressings over the tubing and prepare the more permanent dressings. Next, they pull the tube out and use direct pressure to seal the incision and stop the bleeding. I have heard other people tell me that this is usually done with sandbags but not in my case. My male nurse stood over me with straight arms pushing down on the wound with his palms. I can’t tell you how painful this was – I almost blacked out in the beginning. I actually used breathing to get me through it (sort of like Lamaze techniques for childbirth). I also had a death grip on the bed rails. All this while naked with my penis hanging out, and I still couldn’t move and had to lay flat. THIS LASTED FOR 30 OR SO MINUTES!

About 20 minutes into it, the male nurse was perspiring and his arms were shaking and he was red faced. He removed the direct pressure to check the wounds and all seemed fine but the other nurse resumed the pressure since protocol dictates that they must go 20 minutes plus another 10 minutes to be sure.

When it was all over, they bandaged the wound with a tight pressure dressing and told me that I had to continue to lie on my back for 4 more hours as they continued to monitor my vitals.

That ended right around 1PM or so and shortly after, they finally let me eat something (I had not eaten since about 8PM the night before). The male nurse fed me two tuna salad on white bread sandwiches with sips of ginger ale in between. He literally fed all of this to me by hand (I was still flat on my back, remember).

The next toughest thing was when my wife brought my son up to see me. Poor little guy was very upset (I guess I did not look that good!). I did my best to reassure him that I was fine – especially since the doctor fixed what was bothering me – and that I would be around a long time. I have to say, it’s very hard to explain this kind of thing to a 10 year old. He got through it OK if not a bit scared and shocked by the whole thing.

Through all those hours on that bed, my back hurt, my butt went numb, and my hips and legs were very stiff. It was not even remotely easy to endure.

Finally, at about 7:30 that night, I was able to sit up in bed and even get out of bed to use the bathroom. I was sore all over and it was painful to stand up (my back and legs were very sore and stiff.)

After a fitful night of sleep, the hospital released me the next morning and I went home to recuperate. I had hoped to go back to work on Monday (my procedure was on a Friday and I went home on Saturday) but I was still a bit tired and decided to take one more day to rest.

One of the weird things that go along with this is that the area of my leg that the catheter was inserted is somewhat numb now and all the hair growing back has been itchy! Also, after the procedure, you have to take a blood thinner (in my case – Plavix) for basically the rest of your life. The Plavix made me feel really odd. Almost like I did not know what to do with myself. It even felt like my skin was crawling. In fact my body had to get used to the increased flow of blood and I ended up back in the hospital with chest pains. They did another catherization a week and a half later to make sure everything was OK. It was and there were no other blockages.

Another side effect was that the palms of my hands and my feet itched like crazy. I thought I had a bad case of athlete’s foot or something. Evidently, sometimes the Plavix can cause rashes in the hands, arms and feet. I did not get the rashes but the doctor speculated that with the better circulation due to the stent and the Plavix, the capillaries in my hands and feet were reacting to the increased blood flow and that caused the itching.

After going home from the hospital, I had to begin a regimen of cardiac rehabilitation. This is basically an exercise program at the hospital. I go to the rehab unit for a 45 minute or so session 3 days a week where I exercise for 10 or 15 minutes at a time alternately on the treadmill and pedaling a stationery bike.

I will have to keep up the exercise and I'm on a diet (I'd like to lose a substantial amount of weight). My life has really changed. It has not been easy and I have a lot to get past before I am fully recovered.

Labels: boy, catherization, diet, exercise, heart, nurse, pain, pee, recovery, son, stent

posted by section306g @ 7:40 PM