3rd of 3 Surgeries in 2022

May 25, 2025, at home

Third Anniversary of My Third of Three Heart-Related Surgeries in 2022

PHOTO: my chest four days after my third of three heart-related surgeries in 2022 on May 29, 2022

To see the photo below, just click/tap on the photo, then on "Learn more," then on "See photo," then on the photo, and you will be able to see it. If it doesn't work on the first try, it will on the second try.

1st Surgery (March 9, 2022): I had quadruple coronary artery bypass surgery. As usual, a section of a vein in my left thigh was removed to be used in my open-heart surgery. I had two drains installed in my belly. 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.

2nd Surgery (May 19, 2022): A second surgeon removed the sternal plates from the first surgery that were holding my broken breastbone pieces together from within my chest. The screws became loose. He also cleaned out much of a staph infection also from within my chest. A wound vacuum was then attached to my chest, sucking out the remaining infection and discharge, running 24 hours per day. My chest remained open for a week with the wound vacuum constantly sucking.

3rd Surgery (May 25, 2022): A third surgeon closed my chest by attaching seven sutures, leaving me with eight holes in my body from my lower neck to my upper belly. The wound vacuum was reattached and continued to suck on my chest for many more weeks. The vacuum also served to pull the wounds together to increase the speed of my healing process.

I entered the emergency room of the hospital on May 13, 2022, with severe chest pain, and I would not return home until July 21, 2022, the day before my wife's birthday. I spent a total of seventy (70) days in the hospital and at a physical rehabilitation facility, the latter of which I entered on June 3, 2022.

I am currently dealing with continuing Congestive Heart Failure, which I am addressing with prescription medications. If this doesn't help me much, I may require surgery to install a defibrillator.

During the next two years, I would then have three more unrelated surgeries. I had two surgeries done on my spine: one to clean out an infected disk (September 2023), and one to attach a titanium metal rod to my spine that was "collapsing" due to a bone infection, as per my surgeon (October 2023). In April 2024, I had surgery on my right ankle due to a bone infection.