Please Let Me Jump Out of a Plane After Life Threatening Surgery...

So I was curious to see what the main reason was for visitors stumbling upon this blog (other than being a regular reader). To my surprise...nearly every person who finds this from Google is wanting information on swine flu and aortic valve replacement. Now I’m not here to mock anyone but I did find how one person found this site funny: “Will having a pig valve give me swine flu?” That did put a smile to my face but I felt it was important to say that you will not get swine flu like that! If you catch it, it will be from another person. You have nothing to worry about having a pig valve if you choose that route.

The rest of the people seemed to want information on swine flu and valve replacement in general. Now I don’t have the answers concerning the risk to valve replacement patients yet, but I am seeing my cardiologist tomorrow and plan to ask him this question and will put the answers on here for anyone curious.

My appointment tomorrow is the usual follow up to check how my sternum and scar are healing, and to see how my heart is. I thought it was a good idea to make a list of questions I wanted to ask:

• Will I be able to do sky diving?
• Is the yellow gross puss normal (I only have a tiny bit left on the scar)
• Will I be able to fly a plane? No, seriously. (I want to get a license for that!)
• When can I start running? (I’ve only been doing brisk walking now)
• When can I do weights?

I don’t plan to ask when I can go back to work. I already know that I can, but plan to visit my GP and give a sob story of how the supermarket I work for makes me pull heavy cages and life heavy things. Hopefully I can get a month extra off! Oh...by the way, don’t call me a cashier! Whenever someone asks what my career is I casually say Research Assistant (and conveniently miss out the voluntary part!)

As an update of where I’m at 8 weeks post-op...I feel no pain really apart from when I wake upin the morning. Even then, this is usually minimal. Sneezing can still make me feel like a bomb has just gone off in my chest but apart from that, it’s okay! I’m also walking very briskly now (at a speed of 6km an hour). I tend to walk about 3km a day – gets you very sweaty after all that work. I feel like I can if I wanted to but want to wait to see what the doctor says first tomorrow. I think I’m recovering quite quickly but that might be down to my young age. I can’t wait to test myself on the treadmill to see if there’s an improvement in my stamina like I was promise! Oh, and before I forget, my pulse tends to rest around 90bmp. I’m not happy about that, but have noticed if I do regular exercise it will come down. If not, then it goes back up. Need to ask the cardiologist about that.

Tying Up Loose Ends

So with a week and 3 days until I go into hospital, I find myself in the odd state of slowly wrapping up everything in my life. I haven't really gone in to my personal life but now's a better time than never. I volunteer as a Research Assistant at a hospital, as well as doing some volunteering at a charity, and then I work at a supermarket (which I plan on leaving very soon now that I have finished University!). So in this last week I have been running around trying to get things sorted for when I will be in hospital. I've said my goodbyes to the people I volunteer with and I have 2 days left of paid work at the supermarket. Not to sound macabre but it feels like I'm planning for my death! Of course I don't actually think I will die, but the way I have had to think of every little thing and make sure it is sorted is a little strange.

I've been reading up some more about people's stories who have had heart surgery. Apparantly sneezing after the operation is a big issue and it can blow open the sternum wires (which are there to hold the sternum together after surgery). I'm really worried about this so I'm monitoring how often I sneeze this week and trying to find ways of stopping them. Apparantly holding your finger against the bone between your nostrils at the bottom of your nose helps. We shall see...!

I also need to buy some things for the hospital. But I need to ring them first. Do they have showers in the hospital? Do you shave there? Is there an actual bathroom or do you always use a bedpan? I need to get these questions answered!

By the way, I went to Thorpe Park (a theme park, see one of the previous posts) and had no problems at all. I did avoid the major rides but the ones I went on were hardly childish so that was good. Can't wait till I recover from surgery and do some sky-diving!