The Healing Continues

April 17, 2022 -  I have been slowly, but surely changing my "lifestyle" following my quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022.

PHOTO: Selfie, March 15, 2022, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Raton, Florida

(I post so much about my open-heart surgery because I want to continue to keep my friends and my family members informed and because my recovery is the focus of my life right now.)

I am (mostly) cutting down on salt and sugar; eating more protein and vegetables; losing weight; staying hydrated to raise my low blood pressure; continuing with my prescription medications; doing breathing exercises to strengthen my lungs, ease my asthma/COPD, and prevent pneumonia; engaging in physical rehabilitation with a therapist to strengthen my legs and core (which ended on April 15, 2022, the same day as the end of my home visits with my nurses); and walking with my walker in our home and exercising by myself (mostly in bed).

I will start cardiac rehabilitation in a nearby facility with an evaluation on April 22, 2022, and I will proceed with cardiovascular exercises there two or three times per week for I don't know how long.

Keeping my blood-glucose levels low not only is good for my diabetes, but also accelerates the healing process. From my seven-hour-long, open-heart surgery, I have a broken sternum (breastbone); a 7.5-inch-long, vertical incision in my chest; two one-inch-long, horizontal incisions in my belly where the chest drains and epicardial pacing wires attached directly to my heart for monitoring used to be; and a two-inch-long, deep incision in my lower thigh near my inner left knee where the surgeon removed a two-foot-long, major vein that he used for the four bypasses. I also had an abrasion in my left cheek of my face, probably from the ventilator, and a sore in my right buttock, probably from the operating table and hospital bed; both are now healed.

While all of this to me is a "shock" (physically, psychologically, and emotionally), I am adapting rather well. However, I still have many more months of healing and physical exertion in an effort to surpass the strength, which was weakness, that I was experiencing prior to my surgery.