Geoff Owen
The full journey from discovery, diagnosis, operation and recovery (hopefully!)
WARNING - If you have any pains - especially in the chest area or difficulty in breathing - get them checked out by a professional medical person - don't be an idiot like me & ignore them!
A QUICK INTRO
NB: This part of the Journey is for MY JOURNEY - you need to appreciate that EVERY person who undertakes this operation is different so the Operation & the Recovery can vary immensely due to many factors such as:
Smoking History
Drinking History
Weight Challenges
Current Fitness
Other Health Issues
Mental Outlook
For me personally - I had planned my journey from the day I found out I needed the operation, I tried to find out about what was involved (not easy at first - hence one of the reasons for doing this site & FB Page). I spoke to lots of friends & customers who had had the operation.
Other than the Angina that was the start of this I was relatively fit waling 3-5 km everyday (due to work), NEVER smoked, had stopped my binge drinking many years ago and had never been overweight.
Also I think what has been a major help is I went in with a positive attitude and planned my recovery - learning to accept that I couldn't do what I wanted to do as quick as I wanted to do it - I intended to take the advice of all of the doctors & nurses as they new a LOT more about it than I did.
ONE LAST THING - I'll probably be posting embarrassing personal images on here but it's all for the good of anyone it may help in the future so I'll do it anyway! 😀
The Operation - My Days in the Hospital
To see how & why my chest profile changed as in these images read & watch the following videos
Day 1 - Friday 13th May 2022
Well there is no turning back now - It's just before 7am on Friday 13th May 2022 - My Admission Day at the Priory Hospital in Edgbaston, Birmingham.
If you've followed the Lead Up part of the Journey you would have seen it's taken about 5 months to get to this day, when the Angiogram results showed that the safest & best way to cure my condition was a Double Bypass (CABGx2).
There were lots of hospital visits as part of the preparation for scans, Xrays Blood Samples LUng checks etc (all shown n the Lead Up section).
But now it's come to the point where I cannot do anything other than hand myself over to the experts who are going to 'diffuse the Ticking Time Bomb' that sits in my chest 😀
Diane has dropped me off and now has to go home and hope that I come out in another week - I am due to be released next Friday - that's a 7 night stay here - I've got a feeling that my body may look a bit different when I come out - more of that to follow over the next few days!
Day 2 - Saturday 14th May
For this day I don't think I was up to taking photos or doing FaceBook Lives - this was my first full day in ICU.
Apparently when they tried to get be to wake up they succeeded but I went back to sleep! 😀 I obviously needed a bit more rest.
Fortunately when I was in the land of the living any tubes that had been put down my throat (for breathing) had successfully been removed while I was still under the influence of some of the anaesthetic - I did tell the surgeon that was the bit I was dreading - waking up with tubes down my throat or up my nose.
ICU was a very full on area - something happening all of the time - day or night, never a peaceful moment to get any sleep as it was light and noisy with everyone's monitors beeping & flashing.
It was very difficult to work out how many pipes, drains, tubes & wire were inserted into various parts of my body - including one very functional area - at least with that one I didn't have to get up to go to the toilet 😀
This was also my first chance to eat food - as I'd got a sore throat - mainly to the pipes that had been stuck down my throat I opted for easy to swallow items - porridge for breakfast and egg & cress sandwiches for my dinner, with some rice pudding for afters 😀
I think I even repeated the same menu the following day, but as you'll see my food choices improved considerably over the next few days.
I think at some point on the Saturday I was helped out of the bed into a chair where I ate my food - the move took some doing as there were a LOT lot of tubes, pipes, wires & drains hanging out from various parts of my body - sorry for the ghoulish ones - I have no photos of those (but you can see where they were on future images).
Then at some point on the Saturday night it was time to 'go to bed' for sleep - not that I got a wink all night.
Day 3 - Sunday 15th May
Another Day In Paradise - well not exactly - it was the start of my 2nd day in ICU - still tired - NO sleep at all.
Another busy day planned by the support team - they were hopefully going to take out a couple of big drain tubes later that would make getting in and out of bed easier - 1 person assistance instead of 2 - and I'm a fit skinny rake! 😀
Breakfast came but thankfully unlike yesterday I managed to eat all of the porridge not just a half like yesterday - the egg & cress sandwiches went down well at dinner time - I can't remember what I had for my tea!
Thanks fully I was feeling better today & even manged to get on my mobile phone and did some messages - it was time to try a FB Live!
You may hear what sounds like an elephant roaring on this video - it was actually my neighbour being bought back into the land of the self breathing by having his breathing tube removed - thanks fully I can't remember them doing that to me!
Good news came when the consultant/surgeon did his rounds in the morning - he said hopefully after removing some drain tubes & other bits & pieces they'd look at getting me up to the ward later that day.
YES - It happened - in the afternoon I was moved into my new hotel suite - well my room on the Ward - I was really looking for a Proper nights sleep - although it turned out not quite as good as expected! 😀
Apparently Sunday supposed to be the day of rest - but I can guarantee that it is not for hospital staff or patients! 😀
Not longer after getting into my room on the ward I had visits from the nurse, more tests, more pills - then a physio came to get me out of bed and starting to walk down the corridor - that was very successful - she was impressed with my speed! 😀
Also in ICU she'd introduced me to a toy to help me to get my lungs cleared and functioning again - they are virtually switched off during the operation.
This was a great device as I already saw an improvements in ICU I could only manage 500ml - now I was getting close to 1500ml - so I started practicing and setting targets where I would reward myself with something nice - namely FOOD!
More about that later.
Day 4 - Monday 16th May
Well that was a better night - still not much sleep due to the monitor doing a great impersonation of Blackpool illuminations 😀
It was quieter but at regular intervals a nurse came in with pills or to do checks (Obs), also due to a bladder issue I've got I have to go the toilet at least once every hour - that was the only advantage of ICU - a colostomy back took care of that issue! 😀
I think I opted for the same breakfast again - Porridge & a Melon platter (cool & easy to eat) - although thankfully the sore thought had at least eased off now - time to be more adventurous with the menu!
It's Monday now and it appears that I'm in for a busy day - Mr Ashoub the consultant/surgeon came in about 7 am to tell me his plans for me:
Physio will try to get me to go up stairs - the bit I want as I know they won't let me go home till I do that.
Tubes out of neck
Arm dressing off (where they robbed the artery)
Visit from Diane
More targets for my new Toy - If I hit 3000 it will be a Full English Breakfast tomorrow! 😀
Day 5 - Tuesday 17th May
This was a busy day - lots of things to wrap up in preparation to see about getting me released tomorrow 😀
Yes, Mr Ashoub (The consultant) is happy with my progress and dependant on the results of some tests today he may give me clearance to go home tomorrow.
Some things to look forward to today:
ECG
2 or 3 Blood Tests
Chest XRay
Heart Monitor leads to be pulled out
Canulas out
Chest Drain out - goodbye my bottle of Ribena!
Wounds sprayed with clear dressing fluid
As an added bonus once all of that was done - I could finally hand the sexy hospital gown back and put my own clothes on! 😀
I'd had a lot of people asking about my scars, did they hurt, could they see them etc - So I reluctantly decided do a video of all of what was lefty now.
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Here's the Gory video I did:
I'm glad I did this one - as when I watched it afterwards I noticed what looked like stitches - they were stitches - I didn't realise they were there! 😀
That's how good the nurses are here - earlier this took some drains out that were stitched to me so they couldn't fall out - I knew about that & noticed her taking them out - BUT I didn't realised that she'd stitched all of the holes up! 😀
Apparently I'll have to go to my local doctors to get them removed next week.
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Day 6 - Wednesday 18th May
Well today was meant to be decision day - will I or will I not go home?
Normally Mr Ashoub came in at about 7am to give me all of the updates - however today there was no sign of him!
Thankfully at 10.30 he arrived and gave me the news that he was happy for me to go home and he said he'd have to get the discharge procedure started - my main thing to do was - to find a lift home! 😀
Diane had got several appointments lined up with her family today so would not be available - so thankfully a phone call to my next door neighbour resulted in a positive outcome - Martin could collect me.
The hard part was trying to sort a specific accurate time from the hospital - I didn't want to keep Martin hanging around.
The good thing was I was told it would be after 2pm so I'd have to order some food! Thankfully I managed to get another meal out of this fantastic restaurant!
Sadly one thing I forgot to do was to doe a video of a Facebook Life of me leaving the hospital - however I did this one later that day when I got home - learning to use my PC again! 😀
Some of the meals that kept me happy in the hospital! 😀
NB - I did set myself targets to achieve to qualify for ordering these meals - using the breathing toy they gave me! 😀 😀