Day After Surgery

May 26, 2022 - My surgery went well yesterday morning, but I surely am in severe pain and have difficulty moving due to very limited chest movement. It feels like I am wearing a chest cast. The middle of my back also aches, and I have a slight bandage on my buttocks.

My intravenous and oral pain medications, plus my heart and other medications, seem to be helping a little.

PHOTO: Sitting in my Intensive Care Unit room, Boca Raton Regional Hospital, Boca Raton, Florida, Thursday, May 26, 2022, the day after one of my three recent surgeries

I continue to inhale oxygen through a nasal cannula; receive nebulizer (breathing) treatments due to my asthma/COPD; receive many finger pricks to test my blood-glucose levels; and receive insulin injections due to my diabetes.

I also receive continued intravenous antibiotic for my lingering chest infection and lingering osteomyelitis (bone infection) in my left foot. While I receive the antibiotic through a double-port PICC line in my left upper arm throughout veins in my chest, I also have an intravenous port in the back of my left hand.

To prevent blood clots, I continue to receive injections in my belly of a blood thinner and also wear massaging cuffs around both of my lower legs.

More pills include heart pills, a stool softener, a diurectic, a small iron tablet, and a low-dosage aspirin.

I urinate through a Foley catheter, and I always have a blood-pressure cuff around my right upper arm for many readings every day. My temperature is also take often each day. I constantly wear a cuff around the middle finger of my right hand to monitor my blood-oxygen levels.

I try to exercise my legs and arms in bed as a form of physical rehabilitation, and I breathe in through an incentive spirometer to strengthen my lungs and to prevent pneumonia.

SURGERY: Yesterday morning, a plastic reconstructive surgeon removed the wound vacuum within my chest; cleaned out the remaining infection within my chest; and closed my chest, except for a small drain connected to a wound vacuum.

I entered the hospital emergency room and was admitted to the hospital both on May 13, 2022, with severe pain within my chest. By that time, I had been living at home, had completed physical rehabilitation, and for a few weeks, had been engaging in cardiac rehabilitation on the mornings of Wednesdays and Fridays.

On May 19, 2022, I had follow-up surgery to have my metal sternal plates removed from my chest and a wound vacuum installed to suck out the severe infection within my chest from recent open-heart surgery. On March 9, 2022, I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery, including the insertion of sternal plates instead of wires to hold my purposely broken sternum (breastbone) together.

As of now, the sternal plates will NOT be replaced. I am expected to soon have the wound vacuum removed from my chest and return home from the hospital, unless I am going to live in a physical/cardiac rehabilitation facility for a few weeks.

I received a blood transfusion. I am expecting to be moved later today from my Intensive Care Unit to a Step Down Unit for further care. I am even expected to sit up, which doesn't seem possible at this time, but actually is possible ... because I certainly am sitting.

UPDATE: I engaged in a little physical rehabilitation (walking) during the late morning and then received even more pain medication, this time intravenously.