You and Bypass Surgery

Surgery, it is always a frightening word to here when your doctor comes to talk to you. I know with me, when my cardiologist walked into my room and said it had to be open heart surgery, it felt as though I went numb.

I had never had surgery before except for tonsils as a child and carpal tunnel. When I thought of having my chest cracked open and having my heart operated on I thought the worse.

My surgeon came in to explain it all to me and surprisingly he was very compassionate. He told me everything that would be done to my heart. Later on a Sunday evening my  doctor that would administer the pain medicine and put me to sleep came in. A very soft spoken and compassionate mand he was. He explained what he would be doing and as he talked to me, he glanced over on my table and saw my Bible. He then asked me if I was a Christian and I replied yes. He asked if it would be ok with me if before he left if he could have prayer with me. After I was done asking my questions he bowed his head and had prayer. This was a very soothing part of getting ready for surgery.

At about 2:00pm they came to my room and got me ready to go to the operating room. I they wheeled my bed towards the elevator I was hugged and kissed by my wife,oldst son, Aunt and Uncle, and a very kind friend who had once been a cardiac nurse. I was wheeled down to the holding area and was met by my wife, son, and Pastor. Then my doctor that would put me to sleep was there and we had prayer. He told me he was giving me a shot just to take the edge off and then I was taken to surgery.

The next thing I knew I was waking up and a doctor leaned over me and said that I was going to be fine. The next thing I heard was my wife asking me to sqeeze her hand. I was in surgery for about 8 hours. All through the night I was being told by my ICU nurse, " Breath Bruce". Trying to get me to breath more on my own instead of the respirater doing the work.

By morning at about 8:00am I was taken off the respitater and my nurse said I was doing fantastic. He asked if he could turn on the TV and I replied yes. He and I watched on TV the second plane being flown into the twin towers. What a site to wake up to after heart surgery.

Later I was moved to a room and I thought a baseball bat had hit me. I was up and in a recliner eating jello and broth. It was that next morning that I found out when my surgeon came in that I had underwent 7 bypasses. I was truely amazed as he told me about my surgery.

On Tuesday afternoon two nurses came in from rehab and by joe they got me up and we went for a walk. After we went up the hall and back I was wore out. I was recovering very nicely and then it happened.

I was suppose to be discharged on Friday and I was in the process on Friday morning of getting my exit interviews. Then my cardiologist came in and said he was sorry but I had to stay an extra day. On that Thursday night as I was sleeping I was awakened by a hard heart beat. As I awoke all the nurses came in and asked if I was ok. One even hit my glass of ice chips and water and knocked them over on me. Boy I was awake then. It seems as though my heart had stopped beating for 8 seconds.