May 19, 2024, at home
TWO YEARS AGO TODAY
PHOTO: two photos of myself (taken by my wife on May 19, 2022) after my second of three heart-related surgeries two years ago at Boca Raton Regional Hospital in Boca Raton, Florida.
On this date two years ago (May 19, 2022), a surgeon removed the sternal plates that were holding the pieces of my purposely broken breastbone together due to loose screws and also cleaned out much of a staph infection that developed within my chest. A wound vacuum was attached to my chest, sucking out the remaining infection and discharge, running 24 hours per day. My chest remained open for about a week.
I entered the emergency room of the hospital on May 13, 2022, and I would not return home until July 21, 2022, spending a total of seventy (70) days in the hospital and at a physical rehabilitation facility.
It started on March 9, 2022, when I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery. When I arrived home from the hospital, I engaged in physical therapy and occupational therapy (at home), followed by cardiac rehabilitation at a nearby facility.
About two months later on May 13, 2022, I would enter the hospital with severe chest pains. It was determined that the screws in the sternal plates holding my broken breastbone together had come loose, and I had developed a staph infection within my chest. I would require the aforementioned surgery on May 19, 2022.
On May 25, 2022, another surgeon closed my chest by reattaching my muscle flaps to my chest. He affixed seven sutures, leaving me with eight holes in my body from my lower neck to my upper belly, plus two drains in my belly.
On June 3, 2022, I was transferred from the hospital to a physical rehabilitation facility, where I engaged in daily physical therapy and occupational therapy. The wound vacuum was still attached to my chest, still running 24 hours per day, to aid in my healing by continuing to suckout discharge and pulling the seven holes in my chest together to help speed my healing. I received many painful bandage changes about every two or three days that involved the reattachment of the wound vacuum each time.
I had the wound vacuum removed and then returned home on July 21, 2022, a day before my wife's birthday.
My chest is still numb and mildly sore.
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