It's official, I'm having heart surgery on Feb 18th...wow, it's real now.

Glad to hear you're doing good Revvy! Keep it up! I'll start looking at a N/A brew for the contest!

just let us know when your fg gets to 1.21 jigawatts so we know when you're done

Revvy, just realized you and my wife have something in common now. You're both officially cyborgs.

Get well soon! Hope everything heals up very quickly

Hey Revvy, I just found out that you have been out of the hospital for some time now. Glad that everything is going ok with you. Hopefully you are mending quickly so you are set to go for Big Brew Day. See you then. Jim

Best wishes for a speedy recovery, sir. Maintain your sense of humor and that great positive outlook...you'll be feeling better than ever soon.

Good news, I'm down to once a week home health nurse visits. Three weeks to the day after surgery I'm doing great. Just some pain on my right side, but overall I'm feeling good.

Revvy said:

Good news, I'm down to once a week home health nurse visits. Three weeks to the day after surgery I'm doing great. Just some pain on my right side, but overall I'm feeling good.

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Awesome, Rev! Stay on this path, Amigo!

That's great news Revvy! Glad to hear it!

Wow that's really an amazing recovery!

Revvy said:

Good news, I'm down to once a week home health nurse visits. Three weeks to the day after surgery I'm doing great. Just some pain on my right side, but overall I'm feeling good.

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I'm glad to here it. Is it just soreness now?

TxBrew said:

I'm glad to here it. Is it just soreness now?

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Yeah pretty much. The rib/bone soreness has been gone for a week or so unless I strain too much. What I have now is soreness on the right side of the incission and around my shoulder. My home nurse said it's mostly muscle trauma, and internal scar tissue. It hurts mostly when I sit up from the bed. But there's also occasionally shoot pain in my armpit, like if someone tries to pick you up by sticking their thumbs in your pits. Even with this discomfort I'm now about 6-8 hours between needing pain meds.

Good to hear you're on the mend Revvy

Good news indeed.

Been away for a while; just saw this. Glad to hear you're doing better, Revvy.

I don't speak on forums all that often, but I just wanted to stop in and say that I'm glad you're okay, Revvy. I've gotten a lot of great information from these forums and your posts in particular.

Glad to hear it Revvy!

Glad to hear you are doing better! I hope you are back to "normal" fast.... (not that you were ever normal... but you know what I mean...) Hang in there!!

Good deal man, glad to hear you're getting better!

Like tallybrewer, I've been away for a while too and only just stumbled upon this. I've gained lots of information and encouragement from your posts, and hope to meet you someday (you're not that far from family in Ontario). Best wishes for a speedy recovery!

Thanks gang. I'm, actually feeling like I've had a little setback over the last few day. I'm back to not sleeping because of new pain/discomfort on my right side. It seems the last couple days that I'm so uncomfortable lying down again that I'm back to sleeping in snatches, 2 hours here, up for 2-3 reading, sleep for a couple hours, up for another hour, then at 8am when I normally would be getting up I end up sleeping again for 2.

And I just don't feel all that bright eyed and bushy tailed the rest of the day.

During the day the pain's not bad at all, it's manageable, I can get through like 6 hours without meds, but the minute I hit the rack I can't get into a comfortable position where it doesn't feel like my chest muscles and everything to the right of the seam are ripping.

I keep hoping for the day I'm gonna be able to sleep on my side again, but that doesn't seem like it's going to be anytime soon.

I know this is all normal, even the nurse says so, it's part of the healing process, but it just sucks, since I feel like I was sleeping better a week ago.

I see the surgeon tomorrow my sister thinks I need to ask for a sedative or something just to totally take the edge off at night so I can sleep. I'd kill fore even straight 4 or 6 hours of sleep.

Revvy that sucks....

I have been dealing with insomnia lately and while that is nothing in comparison to what your dealing with....you just can function if your body isnt rested!....I feel for you brother...hopefully the doc has something that can help.

bgruis said:

Revvy that sucks....

I have been dealing with insomnia lately and while that is nothing in comparison to what your dealing with....you just can function if your body isnt rested!....I feel for you brother...hopefully the doc has something that can help.

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Thanks.

In the hospital one of the docs, I think, said that sleeping pills were bad for heart patients because it messes with your heart rate. I don't know if that was just post surgery, or forever. But man I hope there's something that can be done. I mean it doesn't help that I'm not in my bed, or even my girlfriend's (I'm recuperating at my retired sister's house, at least another week or so, or at least until I can drive again I guess) so I'm not exactly the most comfortable. I just keep figuring at some point I'd exhaust myself so much to actually sleep deeper.

Ask about melatonin. It helps me sleep thru the night. I only use once in awhile

I use melatonin every night, it works wonders. Not sure if it'll help you in this case though since you're not having issues with your sleep cycle, you're just being kept up by the pain.

Revvy, I had a bad accident many years ago and did some pretty serious hip damage that took many months to heal. I found sleeping in bed was difficult to get comfortable. During that time I found a favorite recliner that I slept a lot in. The dynamics of where the pressure is on you body is completely different. It may be that you can not find a comfortable position on a recliner either, but it is worth a try.

after i had shoulder surgery i was told to sleep in a recliner so i wouldnt roll over in my sleep and it was probably the worst couple nights of rest ever. however i cant sleep on my back ever so if you sleep on your back the recliner might work. it certainly is different.

+1 on the recliner Rev -- my Dad had quad bypass a couple of years ago and he spent the better part of the first year sleeping in a recliner -- it was very helpful for a comfortable nights sleep during the long recuperation. I think he may even prefer it over a normal bed now!

Unfortunately I don't have access to one right now guys....

Have you got room for a recliner? If so, I guarantee I can raise the money on this board to have one delivered within a few days.

Get a zero gravity chair. They are relatively cheap (Cabellas has them on sale for $70 < quite often). Works great. Montanaandy

Pilgarlic said:

Have you got room for a recliner? If so, I guarantee I can raise the money on this board to have one delivered within a few days.

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I was thinking the same thing -- $10 each, and I'm sure we'd cover it in no time...

La-Z-Boy dealer close by --
ART VAN FURNITURE # 73-PH
1234 32ND STREET
PORT HURON, MI 48060
Tel: (810) 989-2049

No it's not that. I'm at my sister's so it's not like I can have a recliner delivered and even fit amongst everything else. I'm not even in Port Huron right now.

Thanks for the offer guys. I'll make do.

It sounds like you're out of the surgery and post surgery annoyance, so to that. However, you're in the spot between surgery and feeling "right" again; that spot is awful, both physically and psychologically.

When I was younger I fell skateboarding, cracked three vertebrae and the entirety of my rib cage on the left side. I simply could not sleep no matter what I was doing or what position I was in; so I can feel that pain very, very acutely.

I wish I had a solution, but I don't. For me it was nearly 6 months of sleeping between 2-4 hours a night until things healed enough that my own body wasn't keeping me up. The only things that actually helped me were the illegal pain killers (and usage thereof) skateboarders in the mid 90s were known for, which I can't imagine helps you any.

But you'll get through it. And when you do, there will be plenty of people to ask about airlocks, bread yeast, and bottling after 5 days in primary.

I say you sleep hanging from your ankles like a bat. That should fix it.

Had a very good appointment with the surgeon. He's happy with what he sees. I can start driving in one more week, and then I can decide in 6 weeks when I want to return to work, then or at 8 weeks.

He wrote me a script for sleeping pills though since I have trouble sleeping with the discomfort. And had a chest x-ray to make sure some of the pain chest pain I'm having on my right side isn't fluid in the lungs.
4 minutes ago · Like

I walked for 10 minutes, I did two blocks then started to get tired and stopped for a bit, and ended up talking to an older guy with his grand child, who has a bad valve and are hoping to hold off a couple years to be able to get the non invasive...Then I walked back. I'm really sweating but it's a warm workout feeling sweat and not the cold clammies....yay

What, no lunges or squat thrusts?!?!? Wimp!!

That's great Revvy.....there will be a whole bunch of "firsts". Must feel good to get some of them behind you.

Yeah, wait till you get to the first post-op BJ
That'll be a special memory for sure, and something to look forward to.