Today I’d like to update on my checkup one year after coronary artery bypass surgery. If you’ve just stumbled into this post, my journey through double bypass heart surgery starts here.
December 1, 2017 marked one year since my coronary artery bypass surgery. I have come such a long way in a year’s time. Those first few weeks after the surgery I was convinced my life would never be the same. I was so physically limited while I was recovering. Recovery was long. Even at the three month mark when I was cleared to go back to work, I still didn’t feel quite up to it. Month by month, things got a little easier. By the time I hit the one year mark, I did feel truly healed. My cardiologist told me after surgery it could take up to a year to feel somewhat normal again, and I find this is true.
Heart Murmur
Right before Thanksgiving I had a little bit of a scare, but it turned out alright. I had a terrible sinus infection and went to an after-hours clinic. The attending physician swore he heard a heart murmur and told me to follow up with my cardiologist. Needless to say, this sent me into a huge tailspin. My heart doctor got me in quickly and turns out, it was nothing! No heart murmur! I am so thankful and it felt so good to go into the holiday season knowing things were looking good.
Nuclear Stress Test
A couple of weeks ago I had a nuclear stress test. I had one before surgery and failed it miserably. I was scared out of my mind that this one might reveal more issues going on. My mom went with me and I knew what to expect going in, but it still didn’t help my anxiety. We met a very nice older man in the waiting room. He had the same surgery as I did over 25 years ago and he was still doing great. He was very encouraging. I’m so glad I got to meet someone who is still doing so well many years later. When it was my turn, I couldn’t quite believe what happened during the test.
During this test, they inject a medicine called Lexiscan, which causes your heart to speed up a little. It mirrors the stress on your heart as if you had been exercising. Before surgery, this drug had made me feel a little crampy in my stomach during the test. I could really feel that something wasn’t right. Well, not this time! They injected it, I kicked my legs (you have to kick your legs during this test) and when it was over, I felt euphoric! I felt SO good physically. Maybe that’s what people feel when they describe a “runner’s high”? In any case, I couldn’t believe how good I felt. The test was an absolute piece of cake compared to the one before surgery. This made me hopeful that maybe everything was going OK. I couldn’t wait to get the results.
Final Results
I had my one week follow up appointment and I was given the good news that everything looked great. My heart was functioning at right at normal. The only thing he saw was a scar on my heart, but apparently this was on my heart before the surgery. It was the first time I had ever heard anything about it. He said it was nothing to be concerned about and that he would see me in a year. He isn’t even making me do the stress test next time. The only thing we are watching is my subclavian stenosis in my left arm. This can most likely be stented open in the cath lab when it starts to affect the usage of my arm. So far, this hasn’t been an issue, but I make sure to pay attention to the warning signs.
I was absolutely scared to death going into this surgery. However, it has really given me a quality of life back that I had no idea I was missing. I felt tired all the time, but I attributed it to other things. I can go all day long now without a nap and sleep so well at night. The new energy is amazing! I am grateful for each new day and can’t wait to get up and make something good out of my day. This surgery opened my eyes to what was truly important in my life. It also helped me to let go of things that don’t bring me joy. It has been a long, tough recovery. I am so thankful to be on the other side of this now.
Sharing My Bypass Surgery Experience
I love receiving so many nice comments here on the blog on my earlier posts about my surgery. It’s been great to connect and I am always happy to answer any questions I can about what you might be going through. I am so grateful for the support I have received from my family, friends, and readers along this journey and couldn’t have made it through this without them. I am so thankful for my progress one year after coronary artery bypass surgery.
Are you on Facebook? There is a wonderful support group for open heart surgery patients and their loved ones and care takers. If you have questions, people are so good to answer, so I wanted to share the link (click here) in case anyone reading might be interested.
I am so glad your heart surgery went well! However, I am truly sorry you had to go through this too. More females need to speak up about it. I had CABG in 2021. It completely changed my life and not for the better. I had so many complications. I had a reaction to the anesthesia which made my surgery take longer. Then my body formed blood clots at every graft site. Then I had a stroke during surgery which permanently damaged my vision and hearing. Plus I got pneumonia. I lost so much blood that I ended up needing iron transfusions because I became so anemic. They also had to put in an IUD because my heavy blood loss during my cycles were causing my heart more problems from anemia. Then I developed left sided heart failure with a reduced ejection fraction right after the surgery. It causes severe exercise intolerance. I can no longer do anything and I used to be an active person. My meds made me blow up with weight gain. I am now the heaviest I have ever been in my life, even counting my pregnancies. I barely eat because I have such severe nausea every day and, like you, my taste buds changed. A lot of foods no longer taste good. Plus I can only drink certain bottled water now because of the different tastes. Before I could drink any water. Yet the weight will not come off. I have severe bone pain daily. My sternum is deteriorating and the sternum wires poke me. One of my chest tube scars has plagued me with pain for 3 years. My chest hurts worse after surgery than before it, even 3 years later. Plus my left breast has been numb yet hurts ever since the surgery. Any other female have this? Maybe it is because I have large breasts and they pulled on the nerves and chest scar when healing. They wanted me to wear this horrible stiff, scratchy uncomfortable bra afterwards which hurt. When I had clogged arteries I could walk miles a day. Now I can barely walk a few steps without getting out of breath. I can’t do anything from my previous life now, not even fly in a plane. I have trouble doing crafts and reading too because of my vision problems. Glasses and such do not help because it was not the actual eyes which were damaged, it was the optic nerve. My life was completely stolen from me and I feel angry about it. I did nothing to cause these heart problems. I did absolutely everything medical science says to do to keep your heart healthy and I ended up like this anyway and I am not elderly. I was the youngest person on the cardiac floor. Ex-VP Pence was there and everyone else was his age or older. They lie! Nothing you do matters! You have no control over your health and that makes me feel hopeless and scared! I had wanted to live to 104 years old and now my dream is stolen. I will be lucky to live to half of that. I wanted to go to Europe and that dream was stolen. After the surgery I can no longer cry, can’t feel excitement, and I cannot feel love. At first I thought it might be the meds but I asked other people who take them if they have those symptoms…only me. It makes me feel rather dead before I’m dead. Sounds strange but that’s the only way I can think to describe it. I wanted to get a Cardiac/PTSD service dog and no one will help me. The only place who trained Cardiac service dogs closed and none of the others are willing to do it. Plus I am not a veteran. Apparently according to them, non-vets can’t get severe PTSD from being held hostage for 34 days or from being beaten and tortured by men! My death phobia has gotten out of control too. My doctors are not properly treating me either so it makes it worse. A lot of people don’t like my negativity and because I am not fake happy but I can’t lie. Not all of us get the rosy happy life where only normal bad things happen. Some of us get a life where everything horrifying in life that can happens actually does happen. Anyway, I hope your heart stays well and you live a long time! <3
Oh, gosh….I am SO sorry you had such a rough experience and still love with the loss of your quality of life. You have certainly suffered greatly. I don’t think people understand what an absolutely traumatic type of surgery this is, not only to your body, but to your mind. Some people bounce right back, but a lot of people live with the mental and physical scars forever. I know you didn’t ask for advice, but I would ask your doctor about maybe trying a different version of certain medications you take, and I would urge you to look into counseling. I don’t know if you read any further after this post, but I ended up having a heart attack five years later that has really set me back. I have extreme anxiety now because of this. I live in fear of what cardiac event will happen next and when. I’m also afraid of death.
Like you, I can’t do a lot of things I enjoyed anymore. I can’t walk all over stores. I can’t do long car rides. The only time I get out of town is to go to a doctor’s appointment. I can’t enjoy vacations or short trips anymore and just send my husband and son instead because I wouldn’t be able to keep up, and it makes me really sad. You do have to give up a lot just to live a little longer. I will certainly say a prayer for you in the hopes that the days will get a little easier.
Hi Mandy,
My situation is just a little different than most. I lost my husband last year after his five-year battle with cancer and Parkinson’s. The past years have brought so much stress for both of us.
I have always taken care of myself, or so I thought, during my life. I have had a Cardiologist for the past thirty years. Through retirements I have actually had three different Cardiologists. My only complaint was a pain in my throat area extending to beneath my chin. I would notice this pain when going outside last winter. I do have other health problems and one of those is a growth on my thyroid. It was the belief of my regular physician that my thyroid was the cause of this pain. I had a TIA in May of 2021 and the report was that there had been other “silent” TIA’s. Needless to say, this was a shock to me. I was placed on three B Vitamins for treating the TIA. I am still taking those on a regular basis. In October of 2021 I called my Cardiologist and made an appointment for a heart catherization because he felt it would be helpful in checking my heart for a possible blockage. Shock No. 2 was the result which I was shown. I had Atherosclerosis in four places. The blockages were 90, 95, 95, and 100%. Well, the following day I was in surgery. The hospital stay was only three days and since I could not go home alone, I was entered into a Nursing Home. There, I received physical therapy and improved enough during November to be able to return home with the help of having Home Health for three weeks. I am now continuing with the exercises that were prescribed. I did try the Cardiac Rehab. However, I am too short at 5 feet to use the equipment at the Rehab. I have an appointment with my Cardiologist next week and will, hopefully, find another answer for exercise.
I should explain that I have several autoimmune disorders that do not respond well to stretching any of my muscles. I have lived with these disorders since I was twenty years old, and I am now seventy-six years old. I used the same type of equipment at the Nursing Home, but it was much easier.
I have to say that the first three weeks were difficult having had pneumonia, my lungs drained and followed by bronchitis. I have always been a very active person and hope to be again soon. I’m looking forward to Spring and Summer.
Oh goodness, Sheri! You have certainly had a very tough time. I am so sorry about your husband. I’m certain once the weather gets nicer you will be able to get back to being active and help strengthen your heart. That’s definitely my plan! I hope you continue to heal well and take care of yourself. Thank you for stopping by!
Thank your for sharing your journey! I just read your entries to my hubby who is 3 weeks post-quadruple bypass & doing well, thankfully. Yes, there’s much discomfort but it’s finally subsiding and he was lucky to get back into bed after 2 weeks…but still not sleeping on his left side as he had sharp pain deep in his left shoulder blade.
His surgery was just like yours! Totally unexpected. He was at Yale for a cardiac cath due to having on & off jaw discomfort which was his only symptom. At age 68, he’s a physical specimen and works (worked) as a plumbing & heating contractor his entire life. He was (is) also quite the sportsman all his life (golf, basketball, softball). Strong as an ox…but with lousy genetics. His BP and cholesterol were under control with good readings. He always passed nuclear stress tests with flying colors but the latest one came back as showing great blood pumping and flow, but with “severe” calcification in 4 arteries…
So, with no other symptoms other than occasional (quick-lasting) jaw discomfort or under the chin, his GP suggested he have the cath (but his new cardiologist – the one he had for years died – told him to “ignore” the stress test report as his heart was pumping perfectly! GP said to go back to cardiologist & insist on a cath. We did & we had a long drive for a very early cath procedure so we spent the nite at a hotel.
Due to Covid, I wasn’t able to go with him for his procedure. We expected nothing needed..or perhaps a stent so booked 2 nites and also packed just an overnite bag for him.
I got the shocking phone call from the cath dr who said his arteries were so severe, he needed bypass & was “looking” for a heart surgeon while we spoke!
The surgery was performed the next day…He was to take those 2 showers you described but no one came in to help him with those so he went off to surgery without having them. He called me to tell me of this which caused more shock to me as now I also worried about MRSA and sepsis for him. Thankfully, no infection occurred but not being there as his advocate due to Covid, was beyond frightening as to have 2 shifts “forget” to shower him was incomprehensible. Had I been there, that and a few other things would not have been overlooked. The lack of communication was also troubling for me & our (adult) kids.
Again, thank you so much for sharing your details as it truly helps. We hope Bill will be able to return to work but we are taking it one day at a time, knowing full well that it will likely be months and months before he’s able to life a toilet or water heater, or be able to crawl under a sink to fix a leaky pipe…never mind installing a new boiler or furnace!
Hope you are continuing to feel well! Give a hug to all your family caregivers! Due to Covid, we can only have “driveway” visitors, but managing fine using delivery options via many sources, leaving me with only occasional trips to a grocery store.
I’m also wearing mask and gloves, and take Vits C, D, & zinc to keep my immune system boosted, hoping to keep Covid away from our door!
sincerely,
-Lynn in CT
Lynn, I am so glad you stopped in and that your husband is on the mend! His story is very similar to mine! My hats off to plumbers. We’ve had several in our home recently and are so thankful for them. I’d love to hear an update on you guys and hope things are going well. Recovery is long, but I imagine he will feel so much better! Take care!
Hi Mandy,
Loved your article, it is always great to share your experiences so that everybody can learn and get lots of their questions to get answered and even all the stress and anxiety get reduced. As you got encouraging by that old man’s experience, similarily others will also understand that it is not end of the world and that they can live many years of a happy and healthy life.
Hi Mandy.. thank you so much for sharing your journey… I am awaiting surgery in 2 to 3 weeks as I am on a waiting list for a triple bypass. My main concern is the ventilator tube very worried about that part.. I am grateful that I am able to prepare myself ahead of time and did not suffer a heart attack.. will kep you posted.. Gisele
Thank you so much. It is great blog post and helpful information for everyone. Thanks for sharing it with us.
Hi. I just had my quadruple CABG 11 days ago. I’m so glad i came across your blog. I feel every bit of what you described and it’s nice to know what to expect and also that I’m normal for my feelings. Hope this finds you happy and healthy.
Hi Alesha!! I’m so glad you dropped in. I hope you are healing up as good as possible. I know these first few weeks out of surgery are somewhat uncomfortable. Just hang in there and do everything they tell you to! Please stop in and give me updates on your progress! Thanks for stopping by!
Thank you for sharing your story. I had a triple bypass 6 months ago and it was very unexpected as well. 6 week’s following surgery my incisions (chest and where tubes were) got infected and how to go back in. Did you have any rib pain afterwards? I’ve had tender ribs on the left side for the last 2 months and the doctors don’t seem to be concerned but I am.
Hi Marian. I’m so sorry you have some lingering pain. The only rib pain I had was when I had my drainage tubes in. They took them out on day three I think, and then I felt so much better. I sure hope you can get that figured out because I know that pain must be so annoying by now. I hope your incisions are doing better. I really thought my surgery scar was infected at first, but it turns out it was just healing as a keloid scar and not looking like normal scars. Mine is definitely not fading and probably never will. Keep me posted on you! Thanks for stopping in.
I hope you are feeling well these days!!
Thank you so much. I am feeling SO much better!
I just had a triple bypass on May 4, 2022. I came across your story here on Pinterest and it mirrors everything I am going through.
I am happy to hear things get easier, this is a tough road.
Jean, I sure hope you are making some great improvements by now and are feeling much better. Thanks so much for stopping in and leaving a comment!
Thank you for this blog. My daughter sent me a pin for everything bypass. My husband is will have one soon. He had a heart cath Friday and got the news. The surgeon was closed for spring break but known at 8 AM I will be calling! I’m glad your doing do well and again I appreciate you taking the time to give so much information for so many.
You are so welcome, Lois! Sending prayers for your husband! Please keep me posted on how he does. Take care and thanks so much for stopping in!