I am getting the opportunity of a life time and getting to sit in on an open heart surgery.
I am undecided if I want to observe a CABG Procedure, or a Valve replacement surgery. There are also other open heart procedures as well but these are the most common. Can anyone who has experience is the OR, tell me which one would be better to observe.
I want to make sure I am also going to last majority of the time standing as well.
My husband had a quadruple bypass on 9/24. He went in for a routine check up after some odd chest pains. His PCP did an EKG that was abnormal and sent us to the ER. ER ran their own and advised we be admitted so they could do a heart cath. Next day in the heart cath they found he had multiple blockages and open heart surgery was going to happen the next day. He was a five star athlete in college and played 7 years overseas so this was seriously a shock but we have been told it’s mostly genetics at play. I finally feel like he is turning a corner and I’m so freaking grateful but also have questions I don’t want him mulling over right now. We are 34 and like I said this was complete shock. We have 2 kids 8 and 3 and we were actively trying for another before this happened. Is that a crazy idea, I keep having fears and thoughts that maybe this happened because the other is not supposed to happen. Irrational I know but will we have a sex life again? He’s a college basketball coach for a power 5 university. Will he be able to do his job? He’s honestly a very low stress person to begin with but his job can be stressful and high pressure. Our oldest loves to rough house and jump on the trampoline and I know it’s so hard for both of them having to take it easy and missing that connection with each other, will he get that back? We have a trip planned over thanksgiving to the Bahamas, I don’t want to take it off the table because it’s always nice to have something to look forward to while going through something tough, but part of me feels like it’s not a good idea but I don’t want to treat him like this wounded baby bird and his job involves travel so he will have to get back to that at some point. I’m keeping a close eye on his mental health and asking him every morning and night how he’s doing. Should I look for him a therapist? I just want him to be okay and not have these lingering thoughts in his brain about something happening to him. He’s my everything and our kids everything and this truly has been such a scary few weeks. Any insight or ways I can be helpful to his recovery I will take. We do have a follow up scheduled next week but I’m really looking for ways that a caregiver/wife can aid in his recovery and remind him that he has a full life ahead of him
My husband incidentally found out he had a 2.7 cm Primum ASD a year and a half ago. He had OHS to repair with a patch, and we were assured that was completely and permanently handled. A few weeks ago they did an echo to get a baseline normal, sound a suspected leak on the patch. TEE confirmed the leak, 1.0 cm, but they haven’t told us where it’s located/how it will need to be repaired. MRI coming up in a couple weeks to get more info.
Thoughts on this? Specifically was this surgeon error or bad luck? Odds of avoiding another OHS to repair it? We are already mentally preparing for another surgery as it seems that’s where we are headed.