ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

[shirleymahoney]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

wow felix

you are having a lot tougher time with this than i did, ours was done at the same time, and all i'm having trouble with is trying not to do things i'm not suposed to do, are you running fever or they gave me pepcid in the hospital daily to keep the acids down, you may want to try those before you eat to calm your stomach a bit first and reduce the acid before he eats,Sandy i hope you are holding up through this, i can't see fluid in the lungs causing the nausea as i have fluid in my lungs and have had it since surgery they expected it because of just having heart surgery, but i never got nausea because of it, like i said i hope things are looking up for you soon


Shirley

[felixdacat]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

back from the ER....

the nausea got so bad and noone would perscribe anything, so finally
the cardiologist said to go to the ER, so we did. 4+ hours later, the bloodwork showed nothing abnormal, but we got our perscription for
zofran. What I wanted from the start. could have saved the insurance
co lots of money.

so now felix is less nauseous. next trick is to actually get him to
eat something.

off to sleep. it has been a long night.

sandy

[sandylevitt]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

felix is still feeling horrible, but was able to hold down some carnation
instant breakfast this morning. the Zofran is helping some. WE are still
waiting to hear back from his local cardiologist for the next step. I
suggested that he not take his multivitamin this morning and try to keep
himself "pill free" for the day. the other meds he takes in the evening,
now that he is off hte potassium. we want to figure out WHY felix has
not had much of an appetite and now is so nauseous. bloodwork looked
ok. I asked the cardiologist about doing another echo since he had
fluid at one point in the heart and he said that based on his exam of
felix yesterday, he felt this was no longer the case. Why not just
do the echo? this might be a problem. could there be a neural issue
as well after being on the heart/lung machine? We really want to talk
to Dr maron, but he is in NO , correct?

the pulminary dr has not called either to set up an appt.

We are actually at the point here , where I need some help and though
neither one of us really wanted to get here, we are probably going to
hire a live in for a couple weeks to help with the kids, the house, the
errands, the driving, etc. I have lots of friends, but I keep needing them
and last night I felt bad just dumping my kids off again. they need
stability.. Alyssa came back home this morning and she is almost afraid
of her daddy now; she knows that last night something not good happened. jack goes with the flow at 3, but I am sure that he
is also affected since in the last 3 weeks he has slept in 3 different
places 4 times.

I want to thank you for all your support here. I know that months
down the road this will be a faint memory and blimp in our lives, but
right now this is controlling our lives. you are all so great and I am
glad FElix found this board. (and Pam thanks for the phone call last
night as well!)

sandy

[Toogoofy317]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Sandy,

Just believe it will get better! The help may be nice for all in the family. I think Dr. Maron is supposed to be back tomorrow or the next day. It doesn't seem quite fast enough though!

I will keep your family in my thoughts. Hang in there!

Mary S.

[kelly]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Felix and Sandy,

I left Lisa a message at the ACC conference that you had called and wanted to speak with her. She is very busy down there and will call you back as soon as she can. She was not sure if it would be today but more than likely it will be tomorrow.

If there is anything else, let me know.

Kelly

[Reenie]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Dear Sandy and Felix,

I hope that both of you get some answers and can feel better really soon. Take care.

Reenie

[sandylevitt]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

we did hear back from the pulminary guy who said there is not enough
fluid to warrent a drainage.

now if only our local cardiologist would call back. We really need Dr
maron and him to have a little pow-wow once Dr maron is back in
the office.

I got felix to eat a bit, but the nausea is still so bad, even with zofran.
I just wish we could get to root cause. I believe if we get over this
hurdle recovery is going to start to speed up quickly. I know that
felix is having less and less trouble with the stairs and walking, etc

Sandy

[Pam Alexson]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Sandy and Felix , you're welcome . I'm not sure how much help I was but you know we are all here for you both. It is very hard feeling so much nausea. I remember lying in my bed home and in the hospital those 3 times thinking , this is almost worse then going through the surgery. It comes constant and then in waves when you do get a break. For some of us I think it is just the whole experience with anesthesia and all that takes its' toll and makes the nausea linger. I know you must be doing this but if not be sure to time the Zofran and plan the small feedings as soon as the best effect is, when he feels the most relief. Make those feedings as high protien as possible. I ate a lot of cereal and drank a lot of carnation instant breakfast with fortified dry milk added. Sometimes the only thing that felt ok was fresh fruit like they had on the hospital menu. Try to find what appeals the most and stay with it untill this passes. Take lots of deep breaths and I know this hurts but use your inspirometer 10 times an hour. Good luck and I will hope that nausea goes somewhere else very soon. Pam

[Toogoofy317]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Does Felix have any stomach problems as well as the HCM?

I have Crohn's disease and when I have a flare up the neasea is relentless. I get dehydrated very easily. Needless to say if it goes on long enough my heart starts to act up as well. Nothing like being in CHF and dehydrated at the same time (yes that can happen). I wasn't diagnosed with the Crohn's until after I was having bad neasea after surgery. The symptoms I had I thought were normal for most of my life.

Just a thought!

Mary S.

[sandylevitt]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

felix had a stomach tough as nails before the surgery. he has never
experienced this before. (unlike all us women wh o have been pregnant)

sandy

[felixdacat]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

it seems as if a day of "cleansing" ,i.e. not taking his vitamins or the
drugs we think may have had something to do with this, seems to
be helping. he , of course, has to take his required meds tonight. he is also taking lots of antacids as well. He says that
compared to last night this time its much improved.

heres hoping this nausea problem goes away.!!!
the good news is that he got 2 10 minute walks on the treadmill
at 1.8 mph

sandy

[felixdacat]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Hi folks, its Felix himself and not his wife.
If I'm on the computer than I must be feeling better. I got a 'decent' nights sleep and woke up this AM not feeling too bad.
My best guess on what happened was I overdosed on potassium. When they give you lasiks to get the fluid levels down, they also ask you to take potassium suppliments because its suppossed to lower your levels.
Well, my cardiologist reported that the blood tests showed a normal range of potassium in my system, but almost a high level. That was after 3 days of lasiks.
Today just may be a good day. I've already eaten and walked.

[Pam Alexson]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Felix, Glad to hear this . Finally a look at that light through the tunnel! I'm celebrating this day for you. Keep feeling better . Pam

[shirleymahoney]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

That is great news, come to think of it the nurse would tell me every morning what my potassium was and said they wanted to keep it at normal levels, in fact there was a couple of days i didn't get the potassium at all, I hope you continue to feel better each and every day, keep us posted


Shirley

[Burton Borrok]

Re: ah, the joys of the bumps in the road of a myectomy...

Thanks Felix,
You just made my whole day. That is great news.

I take 20 mg of Potassium HCL (CR) a day to offset the effects of 40 mg of Lasix, and so far have stayed in the middle range of normal. I used to take as much as 160 mg of Lasix, but never had trouble with too little Potassium in my system. Now I have kidney problems, so my Potassium level is checked quite often.

I found this on the net.

Serum potassium does not usually go up with high dietary intake of potassium, so toxicity is not much of a problem in healthy individuals, as the kidneys readily excrete any excess of potassium. Only renal failure, heart or liver disease, certain drugs, metabolic acidosis, Addison's disease, major burns or muscle trauma, gastrointestinal bleeding, etc could lead to hyperkalemia (elevated blood potassium).
Supplementing too much potassium may affect the balance of other electrolytes such as magnesium, sodium, chloride, etc, or it may cause irregular heartbeat, vomiting or diarrhea.


It was on http://www.acu-cell.com/znk.html if you want to read the whole article.

Hope this is the end of your ‘adventures’ and now you’ll heal fast. Send our love to Sandy, she’s a real trouper.
Burt