Just Got Home!

[RandyL]

Just got home on Tuesday Jan 11th from the hospital from having AVR on Thursady, Jan 5th. All went well and I have lots to share but way too tired to do it tonight. Thanks for everybody's prayers
Randy

[geebee]

Welcome home Randy. I hope things get better and better for you. I am sure just being home will make you feel more recovered.

Just remember to rest and not try to do too much.

[Mary]

Glad you're at home, Randy. Take it easy and don't over do.:)

[gadgetman]

Welcome back Randy,

You can give us all the juicy details later. Suck on that plastic monster, walk-walk-walk, rest and by all means eat something.

Happy healing and,

May God Bless,

Danny

[perkicar]

Welcome home! Glad you've joined us on the other side. Take it easy and keep us updated as you can.

[Cris N]

Randy,
So good to hear you're home. Follow instructions and walk,breathe, eat, breathe, rest, breathe, - in whatever order you feel comfortable:D .
Recover well.

Cris

[KathyH]

:) Glad to hear everything went well and you are home! Thanks for keeping us posted.
Kathy H

[Ross]

*Remote in one hand. Check Slave Service Bell in the other. Check All systems are a go*

[PJmomrunner]

Welcome home!

[tobagotwo]

Glad you're home, Randy, and apparently not too shabby, either.

Sleep well, and remember to keep your feet up when you post.

Best wishes,

[joanne6]

Glad to hear from you and that you are safely back home. As others have said, "you know the drill" rest, breathe, walk, eat and drink, etc. Hope this is the last time you see the inside of a hospital for a long time.

[Karlynn]

Your only job for the next few weeks: Walk, sleep, eat, breath.

Welcome home!

[Kathy Canistro]

Hi Randy,

Welcome home. I am glad it all went well. Take it slow and build up. It will get a little better every day.

Kathy

[Glenda]

Randy I'm so glad that you are home but bless your "heart" I think you've missed a day. Today is Wednesday, January 11. This is so easy to do considering what you have been through. After I had my AVR I completely missed days, hours, etc. It took me a while to start tracking again. Thanks for letting us know how you are and welcome to the other side of the mountain. Now take it easy and don't over work yourself. Remember all the instructions: Breathe, sleep, rest and eat and move around a little at a time.

[jkn2kids]

Randy,glad you made it through to the other side.Hope the healing progresses smoothly from here on out.

[Jkm7]

Randy....So happy to hear you are home and on the road to recovery. Hope you feel better each day. Take it slow....don't rush yourself.

[Phyllis]

Welcome home, Randy. Sending you best wishes for an uneventful and swift recovery.

[Georgia]

Congrats, Randy. Glad to see you're back & on your way to recovery.

[Marguerite53]

Congratulations! Best wishes for continued success!! It must be great to be home.

:) Marguerite

[blessed1416]

So proud to hear that you are home and that so far everything is well. I know you're tired and you need your rest. But, when you're up and about, and gaining strength, let us know. Today is Friday, so you're a little over a week post-op. It's amazing! !:)

[aussigal]

welcome home!...


prayers for a speedy recovery...you sound good,,,now go rest ,,,cya soon

[Praline]

I am going in for surgery January 18th. I am scared to death so I really do envy you for having this behind you.
I wish you a great recovery.

[imhayley]

Wishing you a speedy recovery and all the best!!:)

[JohnnyV_46]

Glad you made it thru ok....Did you get the license number of the truck?


John

[lohoppie]

everyday gets easier and you will be surprised how fast it goes. Best of Luck Randy!

[KAJ]

Randy,

Welcome home! :) Take it easy. As others have already stated, your only job now is to get well. If whatever you are doing at a particular momnent hurts, stop. You do not get extra points for being macho.

Karl

[blessed1416]

Hi Randy, I've had computer problems- thanks to 2 teenagers using IM all the time, and haven't been able to read or post. Glad to hear that you're home and recuperating. You and I are both 19 days post surgery- do you feel like you can do more and more each day? I do, but then I usually end up doing too much and it sets me back.:( So, I've tried to discipline myself and do NOTHING! :eek: - Except what everyone else says: eat, sleep, drink, and walk. Eating and sleeping are pretty difficult at this time,but should get better. They gave me Ultram to help with the pain- tylenol works as well for me. How about you? Have you had much pain? When you're up to it, if you want, let us know how you are. Wishing you the very best!!:D

[Geo]

Randy,

How are you doing? I hope you are taking it easy.

George

[Praline]

I know what you mean about being tired. My surgery was January 18 and after a setback, I finally came home this past Sunday, January 29.
I am doing good now and hoping for no mor ecomplications.
I sure wish you an uneventful recovery.

[RandyL]

Well, I have not been on here for quite sometime. I guess you could say I had some complications!

I had my operation on Jan 5th and was home by the 11th. On Jan 16th my home care nurse that was coming everyday to give me Lovenox(sp) shots and testing my INR heard an irregular heartbeat. We called my cardio and he requested we go in immediately.The EKG confirmed the A-FIB and he did a echo to take a look see. It seems I had some fluid/blood surrounding my heart. He made me go to ER and was then admitted to the hospital. The next day my Surgeon performed a peri-cardio (sp) window to drain off the blood.

While in ICU after surgery, I had developed a massive internal bleed.I was takin back into surgery and a full steronectomy was performed to stop the bleeding. I was given 8 pints of blood transfusions and thebleeding stopped. This info is thru my wife ofr course since I was out of it the whole time. They kept me in a drug induced coma for 7 days while keeping a close watch over me.

I satayed in ICU another 5 days and then off to a private room for 6 more days. I finally came home on Feb3rd. I must say that I am having a tough time trying to recover.I am very sore still and take Tylenol every 4 hours for the pain. I never really got my appetite back while in the hospital and just thought it was because of the horrible food. Well, I still don't have my appetite and have gone from 260lbs on Jan 1st to 218 lbs today.I am making myself eat now and have stopped all medications except my coumidin and some Tylenol for pain.

I am very weak,prolly from the weight loss, and find it hard to even write this as it wears me out very fast.

Well, we will see what happens, hopefully I will start to feel better soon. I hate writing this especially for those that are getting ready for surgery. If ther is any piece of mind my surgeon has never witnessed this bleed that I had in his 15 years of experience.

BTW My nice little 3 1/2 inch scar I had from my AVR is now a full length scar after the 3rd surgery in 1 month. So this is the first chance I have had to make a post. Thanks for listening.

[Georgia]

Well, Randy - some adventure you've had - I'm so sorry you and your wife had to go thru this. I believe maybe you had the easier part, sleeping it away; I'm sure your wife was frantic.

It's so good to hear from you again; here's hoping that you've had all the excitement you're going to have this year and things get really boring from now on.

Breathe, walk and nap (and in your case, eat) and check in here as often as you can. Having repeated surgeries so close together will knock the socks off everyone; so have patience with yourself and don't expect too much for a while.

[rbl1999]

Randy, I am sending you good positive thoughts, you certainly have been thru a lot. Please take good care of yourself. One thing that is good when you lose a lot of weight is Carnation Instant Breakfast, it has a lot of nutrients in it. Rose

[PJmomrunner]

Gosh, Randy, sounds like you're not having much fun at all! I surely hope things have settled down for good and that you continue on a less eventful course. Take care.

[Georgia]

Carnation Instant Breakfast has 25% of the daily requirement of Vit K.

[RandyL]

Carnation Instant Breakfast has 25% of the daily requirement of Vit K.

Thanks, Iam drinking boosts and ensure. I think vit K is a nono for me and the coumidin tho.

[geebee]

Randy,

Sorry to hear of your problems. I understand your concern about discussing problems as it might scare people but it is important for people to have all information, good or bad. Also, I am sure it helps you to talk about it (even tho typing is hard work right now).

Just try to be patient as things will slowly improve.

Losing so much weight it carte blanche for treating yourself to all those things that normally cause too much weight gain. Try a few milkshakes, hot chocolate, cheesecake, all those yummy things.

Take care and know we are here when you want to visit.

[Georgia]

Randy, I believe ensure contains more Vit K than Instant Breakfast; and my guess is Boost does, too. Most energy bars and drinks are loaded with it.

The problem with them is that one tends to not ingest the same amount of Vit K all the time (two Ensures today, none tomorrow, etc). Avoiding supplements with this kind of level of Vit K makes it easier to keep the inr steady. I think Vit K has become trendy; everything (including energy candy bars) are fortified with it now.

Further, I would guess that they're trying to get your inr up after this last surgery. It's not going to go anywhere soon except down if you're using supplements with Vit K. You say they gave you Ensure to drink in the hospital? Me too. If I'd known then what I know now, I wouldn't have drunk them and I'd have let 'em have it for plying me with Vit K when pumping me full of levonox, heparin and coumadin.

Hope I haven't made your brain hurt. For more info on warfarin, check out www.warfarinfo.com, our very own Al Lodwick's fab website.

[gadgetman]

Randy,

Sorry to hear you had a rough time. Hope things improve very fast.

As for the BAD news. I feel we should share the good and the bad. We can handle the truth (well, maybe most of us). Some of us come thru this experience none the worse for wear, others have a very difficult time.

Again, prayers are coming for a speedy re-recovery.

May God Bless,

Danny

[Geo]

Randy,

I am sorry to hear how much you have gone through. Please know that everyone on VR.com is thinking of you and hoping and praying for a non-eventful and speedy recovery.

Take care,

George

[paulk]

Randy,

I hope things get better for you here on out. Hearing about your experience makes me grateful for my so far uneventful recovery.

-Paul