Surgery and First Week Recovering

• by MathTeacher
• 2015-04-30 04:04:48
• Surgery & Recovery
• 1897 views
• 6 comments

Hi,

I wanted to write this for anyone who's waiting to have a pacemaker implanted. I had to wait two weeks, and my mind went crazy thinking about what it would be like, especially being awake for the surgery. I'm hoping this message will help put your mind at ease.

Surgery wasn't bad. You actually don't remember a thing. I think they keep you awake enough to respond to their questions, but you get enough "juice" that you won't remember what went on. My nurse played a game with me, asked me a question, and then asked if I'd remember it later on. I said, "yes," but he knew from looking at my pupils that I wouldn't remember a thing. When I was wheeled back to my room, he had the information written on a white board by my bed. He asked, "Do you remember that?" I had no idea what he was talking about. He knew what he was doing. It's amazing what they can do.

I had no idea how long the surgery would take. I was told two hours, but being as I "wasn't with it," it went by really fast. It turned out to be an hour and a half for me.

Take your pain meds!!!!! I came out of surgery at 3:30 and was enjoying my visitors later on. The nurse asked if I wanted any pain medicine, but I told her it wasn't too bad, so I went to bed at 11 without it. At midnight I woke up feeling as if someone had ripped the leads right out of my heart. The pain was unbelievably bad. Had I just taken the pain meds before I went to sleep, I could have eliminated that whole situation.

I've needed almost no medicine at home. I took the pain killers for a few nights after that horrible experience, mostly because I never want to go through that again. At home, I don't need anything during the day. Icing the incision (20 minutes on/20 minutes off) helped for an extremely speedy recovery. Two days post op, the nurse was impressed by what it looked like.

I don't know what I'd do without the wonderful members on this site! When I mentioned that the middle of my chest hurt, the doctor looked at me like I was nuts. I was happy to see that someone said he felt like he was hit by a Mack truck. I thought, "Good; this must be normal then." It's bothered me here and there, but it's a doable pain. Nothing you'd even want to take pain meds for, but expect it.

I'm also thankful for those people who said they needed an afternoon nap for three or four weeks after their implant. I was battling mono (really rare for a 56-year old) and couldn't tell if I was tired because of the mono or the heart. Like someone said on the site, your body has just been invaded by foreign objects. It needs time to heal.

I finally took my first shower! They said not to get the incision wet for seven days. I was afraid it might hurt, but I had no problem with it at all. I just let the water and shampoo run over it but didn't touch it. I survived!

All in all, this hasn't been too bad. Yes; it's a pain sleeping on my back. I'm a side sleeper, but I put a huge pillow on my left-hand side, so as not to roll over. I prop another pillow under my elbow to level it out, and it's been okay. For riding in a car, I have a cushion to go over the seatbelt, and I bought a pad on eBay for my bra strap. Oh, and I have to remind you, too...go to the hospital with a button down shirt. I'm not going to even attempt to put anything over my head for a couple of weeks more.

I started walking a mile a few days ago and will increase it to two this weekend. Oh, and believe it or not, I felt a difference in my heart immediately after the surgery. I read the same thing from other SSS patients. Now I can actually go to bed at night or take a nap without my heart stopping! Someone mentioned that you forget what normal is like, and normal is good...real good!

I hope this has helped someone, so that you don't spend your entire days stressing over what to expect. You WILL be fine! Everything will be okay.