Post-Hosp Day Six Summary: Aches and Pains

I've been noticing it all week, but today my body is really aching. My shoulders and arms are sore, and there is a constant tightness across my chest that is mildly painful. Every now and then when I raise my arm, I hear a boney click. I wonder if this is all noticeable because i'm taking less painkillers. Or maybe it's due to the exercises I'm performing. My list of exercises consists of a number of arm, shoulder and leg movements, which are to be performed five times, and then the entire series of exercises repeated four times a day. Given that this exercise list is designed for men 65 and over, I have modified it so that I perform each exercise 10 times, and I repeat them five or six times a day. Given that this is probably more exercise than my arms have ever seen in my entire life, it's probably no surprise that my upper body is aching!

I'm surprised that I am relatively mobile and pain free - I wonder if this is because of my general level of fitness or because I'm so young. I've been telling everyone that there really isn't much pain, and there isn't. I'm so much tougher than those old men! But then a random sneeze hits me before I have time to put a pillow to my chest - and the PAIN is immense! My entire chest lights up in fire and I want to curl up in a ball on the floor. Ok - now I completely understand all the precautions and why the cotton wool is being wrapped around me.

I had another blood test this morning to monitor my warfarin levels. The nurse, a very nice older lady, asked me why I was on warfarin while she was inserting the needle into my vein. When I let her know, she was so surprised that she missed my vein! She was very apologetic afterwards, the poor lady.

Went for my first real walk outside with Yvette this afternoon. Mom's place is on a pretty steep hill, so we drove down to the beach, and walked along the nice flat path to the dog beach. It's so nice to be outside walking. It's hard to believe that i've only just had major heart surgery. I'm looking forward to coming down here for walks more often.

Post-Hosp Day Five Summary: Terrible Twins

It's uncommon for mom and her twin sister to be together in the same place for their birthday, so Yvette and I have decided to organise a surprise dinner for them. Given Yvette's busy work schedule and my inability to lift anything bigger than a salt and pepper shaker, cooking ourselves seems out of the question. So we organise for our friend, who is a wonderful cook and has his own restaurant to cook for us.

I print out nice colourful birthday dinner invitations to give to everyone. Mom and her sister look at them and laugh. And only after several minutes do they realise that it's mom's home address that is on the invitation. It takes several more minutes for them to realise that the birthday dinner is for the "terrible twins", and this causes them to laugh some more!

Leading up to dinner time, I ask mom to cook some rice. This gets her thinking that we must be having Chinese food. I then tell her not to cook too much, which gets them all talking - they decide we must be having noodles. In danger of being caught out, I tell them that the reason why they shouldn't cook too much rice is because we "might" not need it at all! This really gets them going! They are really confused when I start setting the table, and when they ask if I want chopsticks, I tell them that I want big plates and knife and fork. They're talking amongst each other, and aren't sure what is going on now. Sometimes it's too easy!



Yvette arrives with the food, and it looks absolutely delicious! Sambal squid, chicken and tofu, abalone and chinese broccoli, and the piece de resistance, crayfish noodles!



To top it all off, we have a gorgeous cream custard fruit tart! It really can't get better than this! Until Yvette stabs me in the chest with her pointed finger several times after I fire off another witty joke - it really hurts! "You looked so healthy, I forgot that you were sick!" she tries to defend herself! I milk it for all it's worth, writhing my face in agony, and putting on a good show. Yvette is unhappy, but hey I gotta take advantage of this situation while it lasts! *mischievous grin*

Post-Hosp Day Four Summary: Ashes to Ashes

The monotony of exercises and walking in circles has been broken by the commencement of the Ashes! It's a series of five games of cricket, between Australia and England, to win an urn containing the ashes of the original trophy that was won by Australia in a series between the two countries in 1882. In England, it was declared that the performance of the losing team was "the worst in living memory". And indeed, the most memorable quote of the time from the Sporting Times newspaper helped the legend of the Ashes develop:

In Affectionate Remembrance of English Cricket Which Died At The Oval on

29th August 1882

Deeply lamented by a large circle of sorrowing friends and acquaintances

R.I.P

NB: The body will be cremated, and the ashes taken to Australia.

The game is played for six hours each day, for five days. It starts in the morning, and I am transfixed to the television. It's riveting stuff! England won the last series in a major shock, so everyone wants to see Australia kick their arse and get the Ashes back!

At night, my mom's younger sister arrives. She is here to visit for a few days. As if two of them wasn't bad enough, now there's three! The volume of talking and laughter in the house has risen accordingly, and in complete and utter desperation I have taken to shutting myself in my room and reading Harry Potter!

Life in Suburbia

Life in suburbia is so quiet. Where I live, there is hardly any traffic, and most people work during the day so they're not home. There is a regular chorus of birds around during the day, but the only other animal one is likely to find around the house is the odd stray cat, or a neighbour's noisy dog.

Contrast with my grandparents who live in South East Asia. Their house is surrounded by three large dams, where they keep fish. They also have lots of chickens and ducks. I called them to let them know that I was ok after my surgery, and my grandmother says that they have a giant python in their backyard! It has been eating chickens for the last few days, and yesterday it ate two and now it's too full to move! It's lying in the backyard, resting peacefully, knowing full well that it's next meal is just a tiny slither away. I think my grandma has taken a photo, so i'll have to try and get hold of it.

In the meantime, Call-A-Python-Hunter has been called and are coming in to remove the python. I wonder if they'll cook it??

Post-Hospital Day Three Summary - Loosening the Cotton Wool

It's been a big day of advances. I managed to convince my mom and aunty that nothing terrible was going to happen to me if they left me alone in the house and went shopping for a while. And it only took 20 minutes of arguing! I've also managed to convince them that I am capable of pouring my own cup of tea, and carrying my food to the table. They even allowed me to leave the house in the care of Yvette for a while, although I think dad helped me win this battle.

My grandmother (who lives nextdoor) was alarmed yesterday when she saw me walking outside on the driveway during my ten minute exercise session. Today she stormed in earlier in the morning and was terrified something was wrong because I hadn't been outside for my morning walk! Given that it was about 10C and windy, there was no way I was going outside. After some discussion, I think she now understands a little bit better that I don't need to be completely wrapped up in cotton wool and protected like an Egyptian mummy!

There's also been a loosening on the ruling of foods that I can eat. It seems that I am now allowed to eat eggs if they are in cakes etc, just not eggs on their own. Mum is still not convinced by this though, and still keeps complaining. I am also allowed to eat abalone (but not other shellfish) so my diet is about to suddenly get very expensive! haha

My friend Juan from Barcelona called me last night. He was distraught when I told him that I was going in for heart surgery, and it was pleasant surprise to hear his voice on the phone. He is the most wonderful guy, and I'm looking forward to advancing our work collaboration further.

I have decided that I am not going to read or reply to any emails pertaining to work for a while, just to that I can truly "rest". I have to admit that I'm not particularly confident that this will last however, because like half of the world's population I live on email. So many times I catch myself with the cursor hovering over a work email, begging me to click it. I must resist!

The pain in, surrounding, on top of, below, on, near, above my chest is subsiding markedly, although I'm not sure if this is because I have overcome my severe aversion to pain (read complete wuss) or whether it's the constant dosage of paracetamol talking. In consultation with Dr Yvette, I have decided to try lowering my dosage of pain killers. It would be nice to reduce the number of damn pills I have to take!

The Road to Recovery

It's the start of my third day out of hospital and already I have a routine established for tackling the arduous road to Rogovery. I wake up around 7am, and perform some exercises (neck, arm and leg movements, then some deep breathing and coughing), have a shower and then some breakfast (together with 7 tablets). At mid morning I do my first repeat of the exercises and then go for a 10 minute walk in a loop around the driveway outside mum's house, by which time I'm lightly sweating.

Lunch is around midday (another four tablets), and after a short rest it's my third series of exercises for the day. Early afternoon, and I go for a second 10 minute walk. The cat follow's me around, I think he's confused by how slow and unsteady I am walking - it's quite comical really!

Mid afternoon exercises are followed by a small snack, and then some rest time reading a book. I'm currently reading Harry Potter for the first time, and while the first book was total crap, the third book was kind of interesting.

I do a set of exercises before dinner (five to eight tablets depending on required dosage) and a final set before bed (two tablets).

Adding to the tediousness are the list of things I can't do. No lifting. No pushing with my arms (or elbows - no cheating!). No leaning on arms or elbows (this is a tricky one not to do). No bending over or reaching forwards too far. No crossing my legs when sitting down (haven't figured out why not yet). No driving. No going to public places where people might spread their dirty germs to me. No going outside in extreme hot or cold or windy weather (like today). No sex. The list is endless...........

Having said all of that, I'm glad that I am completely repaired, and if these small sacrifices are all that is required for me to return to full health then I'll gladly take it. Rogovery - here I come!

Black...erm...Male Spherical Things

Rog, Alan and some of his other op-buddies have been improving daily. They've taken to strolling the ward corridors for exercise and visiting each other to exchange recovery progress notes and general gossip. After one such jaunt down the hallway, Rog returns with this to report:

"Alan's balls have turned black!" Rog announces.

"???" I say.

"Yeah, this other old guy said that as well. He told me his balls are black in colour. He even asked if I wanted to look at them."

"So did you?" I squeak.

"No bloody way!!" Rog shuddered.

They figured that having the catheters in would have irritated them. And when their catheters were taken out, it must have bruised their erm... male spherical things to the point of blackness.

"But what about yours?? Are they alright?" I'm nearly too scared to ask but just had to know.

"Nah, mine are fine," Rog answers breezily.

Later, Alan comes knocking on the door, pushing his IV drip hurriedly along, together with his wife, daughter and granddaughter in tow.

"I've got news for you," he exclaims excitedly.

Plonking down on a chair, Alan said:

"You know how I told you about down there," waving his arms in the general vicinity between his knees as he speaks.

"Ya...?" we prompt.

"They're burnt! The black bits are now peeling off, and the nurses have even given us cream for them. You'd think they'd warn us about this beforehand."

Turns out those black bits were iodine burns. When they go into surgery, their skin is doused liberally with antiseptic iodine solutions to kill or prevent the growth of bad bugs. Looks like some of the more sensitive parts of the skin reacted to the iodine and caused irritation and minor burns. (Don't worry, it must've been quite minor, otherwise Alan would not have been running around bragging about it)

Definitely extra info needs to be added to the patient information booklet.

"So are you sure your [male spherical things] are fine? No burns?" I venture timidly, even though I'd asked him earlier.

"Oh there was some dark-ish skin peeling, I thought they were dry skin so I just peeled them off."

"???" I say again.

"What?? I had heart surgery, not balls surgery. That's the last thing I'm worried about at the moment!"

A Tale of Twins

You'd think that if two identical female twins did something together that they'd be ultra efficient, and things would take half the time that they normally would. You'd think, but you'd be wrong!

Yesterday my mom and aunty took more than an hour to chop up a whole pig into large pieces - it takes my grandmother about 10 minutes and she is over 70! Today we went to cut some extra sour Chinese vegies from the garden. I managed to cut the first two in no time (ok, I'm probably not allowed to be doing this at the moment!), and it took them 10 minutes to cut the next five!

Having said all that, it's clear that they are tremendously happy together, their endless nattering to each other is filling the entire house! And it's making my road to recovery all the more pleasant. If only they wouldn't try and feed me so much damn food - I'm gonna become Big Rog soon!

Life on Warfarin

One of the major fears after any type of open heart surgery is blood clots. To overcome this, patients are prescribed anti-clotting drugs like warfarin. The prognosis for patients with heart valve replacements is daily warfarin for life. Luckily for me, since a piece of my own heart has been used to fix itself, I only need a low dose of warfarin for two months.

How does warfarin work? Apparently it prevents blood cells from aggregating together. Does it work? Yes, so well in fact that if a person taking warfarin gets a cut or scratch, the blood won't clot there either! Obviously this raises the issue of taking care not to cut oneself or risk bleeding to death. Sobering thought really.

This morning I woke up, and felt a big booger in my nose. As is natural, I stuck my finger in to remove the slimy thing. However along with booger came a little spot of blood. And then the warm sensation of blood slowly flowing into my nostril. It took more than five minutes to stem the tide of blood! I have a feeling that this is going to be a long two months!

Rise of Rog

Just before leaving hospital, I had the opportunity to watch an ultrasound of my repaired heart. While everyone's been telling me that the repair was successful, seeing it with my own eyes really brings it home to me.

So I have arisen like a phoenix from the ashes. The new Rog. While the phoenix arose in an improved golden form, my rebirth has involved no such obvious physical change. I guess it's hard to improve upon the old version! :o)

What has changed are my thoughts. I've spent a lot of time on my own recently, and I can safely say that this entire experience has not been negative. I've no doubts that in the coming weeks I'll be spending lots of time contemplating, but I know that I face this in a positive frame of mind, which will surround me with a mental coat of golden armour to face the future. So look out for the New & Improved Rog!

Oh and don't worry, this serious stuff won't last much longer, funny witty Rog is still here, and he's improved too!

Rog is Back!

Left the hospital yesterday morning, and am now staying at mom's. Haven't lived here for more than 10 years, but I'll be here for at least a week! Seems like the best of both worlds. I get good food on tap, and it ensures that mom and dad don't have a nervous breakdown because they can see that i'm ok ALL of the time (they have set up a roster to monitor me 24/7!).

It's been a real rollercoaster ride. I'm looking forward to gradually adding little (and sometimes large) tales of my adventures so that you can all share my journey.

For now, I just want to let everyone know that I am feeling very well. I'm looking forward to rehabilitation and getting back to being even better than normal.

I do wanna say a huge thanks to all of you for your prayers and tremendous support! I'll never be able to describe just how much of a positive effect this has had for me during this time. Thanks everyone!

Lastly, I have to say a special thankyou to Yvette! While this blog has mainly been about me and how I have dealt with major heart surgery, it's effected her just as much (well possibly not quite physically the same!). She's managed to hold things together, and even provide wonderful daily updates to everyone cataloguing my recovery. Behind every great man there is a great woman, I guess we all know who mine is! I must say that I'm thankful she didn't change my blog background to pink or anything during my absence though! :o) I'm happy to say that she will continue to be posting too, providing her take on my story.

The Eehk Factor

Rog wanted me to write a post about a particular post-op event but he didn't quite know just how to word it. I'm not sure I know how to either. So I'll just write it the way he tells me.

"You know, I'm a regular kinda guy. It's like clockwork everyday - in I go, do it and I'm out again. Takes no more than a few minutes each time."

"But now," Rog says, scrunching his face, "it's taking forever. I've already been in three times today. I sit there for 10 minutes and nothing happens."

"So you can't go? If you can't, you can't. You shouldn't force it. It's the drugs that's stopping it," I put in my two cents worth.

"Yeah, everyone says don't strain, don't force it. I really feel like going, its there... but I'm scared if I strain my stitches will open!

"I don't know how hard to push. Should I go 'eehk' or 'eeeeeehk'??" Rog says, half squatting-half bowlegging to demonstrate as he speaks.

At this point, I look at my delicious chocolate biscuit I was munching on, suddenly it doesn't look so delicious anymore.

"It's not like there's a scale of 1 to 10 of how hard to strain. I can't get a nurse to come in and tell me if I'm pushing hard enough or not..."

Rog is visibly distressed. He doesn't like not being able to go. Initially, on Post-Op Day 2, he was very ambitious and asked for a bedpan. The nurse wasn't surprised when nothing happened (he called it stagefright) because the drugs prevent that particular bodily function. Post-Op Day 3, freed from all his tubes, he leapt out of bed and dashed to the loo. But still no success.

Finally, after four long days, mission accomplished. "And it was a big one too!" Rog said. Luckily it didn't cause a blockage or overflow - has been known to happen.