Opinion: Heart advice
Wires and tubes show up in this X-ray of Peterson’s chest taken in early February.
I’ve run into quite a few friends and readers since I had my double bypass heart surgery and I thought I’d share some experiences on what you might expect if you have to have this procedure done.
I’m not going to sugarcoat this: It’s painful. The most painful thing I’ve ever had done. During surgery, your lungs are collapsed and your sternum in cut in two and then wired back together. The sternum wires stay in your chest the rest of your life. You’ll also have a couple of drainage tubes in your abdomen that drain fluid from your lungs and chest into these reservoirs that a nurse will empty every few hours. They strip the tubes out with their hand. The first night it felt like the nurse was pulling my lung out of the one tube. I have never swore so much in my life. But after that, it got much better. There’s also a multitude of wires that run into your chest and designed to give you a jolt if something goes awry. Your chest will feel like crap until they pull them out. I had tubes in me for six days. I suspect most patients go through this with plenty of opioid pain meds. But opioids made me feel worse, not better, so I gutted it out with just Tylenol after day three. No fun. When they finally pulled the wires and tubes out it really didn’t hurt much, but it did feel weird. You feel a lot better when they’re out.
The respiratory therapy is very painful as well, but take it seriously and do what they tell you to. It hurt like hell, but my lungs felt 100% better when the sessions were over.
Become a Subscriber!
You have read all of your free articles this month. Select a plan below to start your subscription today.
Already a subscriber? Login
