Posted by Phillip Powell on January 16, 2003 at 06:05:57:
In Reply to: Waiting for the Maze posted by Phillip Powell on November 14, 2002 at 08:19:10:
Hi everyone Here I am post Maze and in sinus sorry I haven't posted a message before but time has just flown buy I must thank Carl Plaskett & Jack Drum for their interest and apologise for not answering their messages.
To bring you up to speed I went into hospital on the 18th Nov last.
I entered Tooting Hospital London England had my op on the 19th woke up on the 20th suffered the removal of the throat tube (not as bad as I expected)and proceeded to survey the scene as it were, chest drain and two lines into veins plus one into an artery in my neck and of course I was catheterised for urine output but what are these wires for?
I was at this time in ITU but later that day the chest drain(ouch)was removed and I was transferred to a ward full of patients some 23 of us in all who were in various stages of recovery from a number of heart related operations the most common being catheter related the fitting of stents and angioplasty etc there were 6 other people getting over bypass operations I was the only Maze person there!
They gave me a rolled up towel held together with tape wich after my first reflex cough became my friend for life!!!!!!!
I was in sinus when I awoke in ITU I slipped back into AF the day after but this time I could tell(I had chronic AF before but to be honest this seemed natural to me)it was as if I had someone doing acrobatics in my chest my heart rate went up to 165 and at this point I was given Amioderone via the line in my neck this calmed things down somewhat!
Recovery seemed to be linked to what they were ready to disconnect from you I was so pleased when they said I was passing enough fluid to be de-catheterised it made getting in and out of bed so much easier and I could walk around more the wires were the last to be removed these it seemed were pacing wires and were just pulled out a most strange sensation this meant I could now have a shower bliss!!.
at this point I think I started to suffer from a tummy bug although this did not seem obvious at the time to anyone.
their main concern was my recovery from the surgery my temperature was high and I felt unwell so they pursued it through countless blood tests several x-rays and an echocardiogram but all was satis so there was much confusion all around it seems to me that I was on so many different drugs they masked the symptoms but when the penny dropped they sent me home 11 days after the op I was so glad to get home to real food and a good night's sleep!
I was still in AF when discharged but on the 30th Nov 2002 I converted to sinus it was a most strange sensation my heart rate had been around 90 but it just dropped to 70 and stable "wahoo" this was confirmed the following week by an ECG a subsequent ECG last week was also good so it looks like drinks all round.
I came down with the FLU big time on Christmas Eve and with all the coughing and sneezing I though I was going to re-enact the scene from Alien my chest got so painful, I can only say this week I really feel good now that the after effects of the FLU are just about gone.
Well it looks like it's onward and upward from here on in I have been back at work(alternate e-mail address phillip.powell@bbc.co.uk) since the 6th Jan 2003 and have had no problems at all.Yours Phil Powell
- Re: Waiting for the Maze Carl Plaskett 20:48:09 1/16/2003 (1)
- Re: Waiting for the Maze Phillip Powell 16:37:04 1/17/2003 (0)