Medical Update

October 15, 2022

Medical Update:

To show you the extent of my chest incision after three recent surgeries (one heart; two chest) and its subsequent healing, here is a composite photo I made to compare.

While my chest is still sore, swollen, and numb, and I require many more months to heal, my scarring isn't as bad as I thought it would be. I was told it would take me about a year to mostly heal.

I spent a total of seventy (70) days in a hospital and at a physical-rehabilitation facility (nursing home) from May 13 (admitted to hospital) to July 21, 2022 (released from rehab facility).

I was but am no longer engaging in physical therapy and occupational therapy. I was engaging in cardiac rehabilitation, but complications following my heart surgery caused me to stop. The cardiac rehab may have caused my complications because I may have started it too soon. I plan to continue to regain my strength at home with the continued help of my wife and my mother. I do have access to a small, private gym.

I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery on March 9, 2022, and then two surgeries in/on my chest in May 2022. My surgeon started my heart surgery by removing a long segment of the saphenous vein within my left thigh. He then made an eight-inch-long incision in my chest, broke my sternum (breast bone) to access my heart and used my leg vein to replace four arteries in my heart.

For my surgery on May 19, 2022, my surgeon removed metal sternal plates from within my chest due to a staph infection.

For my surgery on May 25, 2022, he cleaned out the remaining infection from within my chest, and he closed my chest by first clipping off the tips of my ribs and then by reattaching my chest muscle flaps to my body. My surgeon then used seven spaced-out sutures to close the eight-inch-long, vertical incision in my chest initiated by my open-heart surgery in March 2022 and made worse by my two subsequent surgeries in May 2022, leaving me with eight deep holes in my chest to heal. I also had two wounds (one healed) in my belly where drains were installed.

For a long while, I had a wound vacuum constantly sucking on my chest to remove fluid discharge from inside my chest and from my wound, and to squeeze my wound together to make it heal faster.

During my time at the hospital and at the rehab facility, I was on a six-week-long regimen of daily intravenous-antibiotic infusions for my reoccurring bout with osteomyelitis (bone infection) in my left foot. I was told that the osteomyelitis in my left foot may have caused the infection in my chest.

The antibiotic was administered through a 21-inch-long PICC line (Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter) starting in my upper left arm and weaving through my veins with the other end near my heart.

I had three surgeries last year (2021) on my left foot: two to remove decayed bone fragments and one to remove a benign tumor that was growing within a diabetic ulcer. I also had another surgery on my left foot a few years ago to remove part of a decayed bone.

I have endured this antibiotic regimen many times for the lingering osteomyelitis and also for cellulitis (infection) in both of my legs individually due to diabetic ulcers in both of my feet.

Early last year, while doing a regimen, both of my kidneys failed, requiring six weeks of dialysis (four straight hours, seven days per week). It also caused my white-blood-cell count to be almost zero.

Also last year, I was hospitalized many times with dangerously low hemoglobin and iron levels; two bouts of pneumonia; a covid infection; and a thoracentesis procedure performed on my right lung, where the doctor removed 22 ounces of fluid surrounding my right lung. He sucked it out by inserting a catheter in my back and into my chest cavity. I had the procedure done on my left lung a few years ago, but it wasn't as severe.

Last year, I also had intensive testing for a possible Transient Ischemic Attack (TIA; mini-stroke).

Thank you for your prayers, well-wishes, and support. I am not seeking pity. I just wanted to share my medical journey with you. I am extremely happy and immensely grateful that I am still alive, thank God, too.