tiny<\/strong> incision they made to insert the catheter.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIf I didn\u2019t need the ascending aorta replaced, they could have replaced my aortic valve with the same exact catheter procedure they were doing to simply look around!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The tiny incision was made on my right inner arm, right above my wrist. Thankfully, it worked, because the alternate entry point is the groin (not something I was excited to experience).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Most of my arteries were (are) clear, with a single one showing a 30% blockage, which the surgeons weren\u2019t concerned about. My PCP on the other hand has flagged that as something that needs to be monitored over time, and is one of his major concerns over my cholesterol levels post surgery (we\u2019ll get to that in a future post).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prior to this test, if you had asked me if I had ever taken fentanyl, I would have definitively said no<\/strong>. To ensure that I didn\u2019t experience any pain during the procedure, I was given a tiny<\/strong> dose of fentanyl (not enough to put me out, but enough to not feel more than \u201csomething is going on somewhere inside of me\u201d).<\/p>\n\n\n\nIn addition, I was given a dose of Midazolam. It\u2019s meant to relax<\/em> you when having minor surgery. It was explained to me that if anything traumatic happened during the surgery (psychologically, not physically), I would likely not remember it. Basically, it\u2019s a feel good<\/em> drug.<\/p>\n\n\n\nAfter the procedure, they monitor you in the hospital for a couple of hours, then make you walk for 30 minutes and void your bladder. If you can do all that, and not develop a bleed from the incision, they release you. I passed, I was released.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve mentioned this before, but prior to this, I never had any surgery of any kind (major or minor). I just passed the minor part, but was one week away from a more serious undertaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
My last sip of liquor occurred on Christmas Eve (I\u2019m a social drinker, never without company, so stopping that was trivial). I was cautioned to try and avoid as much contact with people as possible, since getting sick before surgery could throw the schedule off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On January 1, 2025, one of our closest friends flew up from VA to stay with Lois while I recovered in the hospital. At the crack of dawn on the 2nd, the three of us got into a cab and went to Lenox Hill Hospital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After filling out a lot of paperwork, I was taken into a pre-op room where my chest was shaved, and some areas in my nether regions as well, in case they needed to insert a cardiac catheter through my groin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The anesthesiologist came in to explain to me what was about to happen. Shortly thereafter, I walked into the operating room and lay down on the table. The surgical team was already in there and scrubbed up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At 7:30am, the anesthesiologist asked me where my favorite vacation spot was. I told him I was retired for a long time and my favorite spot was home<\/strong>. He asked me to imagine where I might want to go, and without much hesitation, I said Tahiti<\/strong>. He asked me to close my eyes and try to visualize what it would be like to be in Tahiti.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWithin 10 seconds of closing my eyes, I have zero recollection of anything (including some pretty dramatic events) until I opened my eyes again in the ICU.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You might wonder how I know there were dramatic events if I have no recollection of them. In addition to being told about them by multiple people, I also read the chart in my patient portal where the surgeon detailed it as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I was in surgery for roughly five hours. During that time they replaced my aortic valve with a bovine<\/em> valve (cow). I only found out two weeks later what that really means, and I will relate it in another post. They also replaced my ascending aorta, with a 100% synthetic one (also discovered two weeks later).<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn to the part that I was told about but don\u2019t remember. After the surgery, they wheeled me into the ICU. Apparently, I was responsive, though I couldn\u2019t talk due to a breathing tube that was still fully inserted. I do not remember anything or anyone during that (very brief) time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Lois, our friend from VA and a very good friend from NYC were all in the ICU room waiting for me. All three of them felt that I looked too pale (white as a ghost was one description), and were worried. A minute later the surgeons came in to check on me. They too weren\u2019t comfortable with how I looked. They ordered me to be wheeled back into the operating room.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This is noted in my chart as RTOR (Return to OR!). They opened me up again, and quickly found a very small bleed. They closed that up and within 40 minutes, I was back in the ICU. Lois and friends said that I looked 100% better, with full color having returned that quickly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019m guessing that it was roughly 2pm on the 2nd at this point. I\u2019m also guessing that they fully sedated me a second time to open me up and work on the bleed, which would explain why I didn\u2019t open my eyes again until 5:15am on January 3rd, 2025. From my perspective, I was out for 21 hours and 45 minutes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Given all of my multi-year sleep issues, that was the only glorious<\/strong> part of this entire experience.<\/p>\n\n\n\nOn the other hand, waking up was one of the worst parts of the experience. I believed that I was fully prepared for my part of the waking up process, but I was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the surgery, Northwell Health requires you to watch two separate videos. They\u2019re both on YouTube, so anyone can watch them. One basically shows you what happens inside<\/strong> your body (where the valve is, etc.). The other is a 13 minute video that shows you everything you will experience as a patient before and after surgery.<\/p>\n\n\n\nIt\u2019s an exceptional video and while I wasn\u2019t looking forward to any of it, it was incredibly calming to know what the ICU room would look like, what the typical post-surgery challenges would be, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the things they concentrate on is the waking up process. They show<\/strong> you a patient with a breathing tube in. They explain that it is important to get the breathing tube out as quickly as possible once you wake up. They prepare you well for what that entails (or so I thought!).<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen I opened my eyes, I saw Lois sitting right next to my bed (she slept in the chair in my ICU room). There were at least three medical professionals standing over me as well. They explained that it was time to remove the breathing tube, and I nodded my understanding (it\u2019s critical not<\/strong> to attempt to speak while it\u2019s in!).<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe procedure involves them pulling the tube out close to 90% of the way (I might be misremembering the exact percentage). Once it\u2019s that far out, they require you (the patient) to breathe on your own. If you demonstrate that, they pull the tube out the rest of the way. I assume that if there are issues, they reinsert the tube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I believed that I was breathing perfectly well on my own (and pretty proud of it!). Apparently, they didn\u2019t perceive it the same way, and kept urging me to breathe<\/em>. Unfortunately, the next part was excruciating…<\/p>\n\n\n\nThe video never dealt with this, so I was unprepared for it and hadn\u2019t warned anyone in advance. I have one of the worst gag reflexes<\/strong> of anyone I know. Now that the tube was 90% out, and I was breathing deeply on my own, I started to gag badly. I couldn\u2019t explain to them what was happening, because I was disciplined enough not to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\nWhen they asked \u201cAre you OK?\u201d, I violently shook my head \u201cNo!\u201d. I was as close to a full-blown panic as you could be, while still sort of<\/em> being in control (because I knew what was happening, though they didn\u2019t).<\/p>\n\n\n\nNo one in the room had the authority to simply pull the tube out the rest of the way! I heard them discuss it, and one of them left the room to find the person in charge of the floor to get permission. Unfortunately, that person was asleep (I blame no one, seriously!).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It took another few minutes of them trying desperately to calm me down saying things like \u201cThis isn\u2019t unusual, lots of people go through this, try to relax and breathe, and we\u2019ll be able to pull it out the rest of the way\u201d. As soothing as the senior nurse was (and she was amazing to me throughout my stay in the ICU), it didn\u2019t really help, because they didn\u2019t know why I was having a problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At some point, I realized what was happening. I was breathing really deeply through my nose, feeling my belly fill up and rise, and then breathing it out, proudly. Whenever I did that, I could feel them tense up like something was wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
When I breathed through my mouth (which wasn\u2019t often), I realized they were encouraged that things might be turning around. I tried to breathe only through my mouth, and sure enough, shortly thereafter they pulled the tube out completely. The nightmare was over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the next post, I\u2019ll detail the recovery in the ICU.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I ended the last post with a tiny spoiler, which is now memorialized in this post\u2019s title. I\u2019ll start with the final lead-up to the big day. Exactly one week before the surgery (December 26th, 2024), I had to undergo a Cardiac Catheterization Test. It\u2019s a procedure that let\u2019s them look at the arteries around […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"activitypub_content_warning":"","activitypub_content_visibility":"","activitypub_max_image_attachments":4,"activitypub_interaction_policy_quote":"anyone","activitypub_status":"federated","footnotes":""},"categories":[1401,2],"tags":[1402,1379],"class_list":["post-14472","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","category-2","tag-health","tag-personal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14472"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14474,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14472\/revisions\/14474"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14472"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14472"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/opticality.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14472"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}