This may be the hardest of my three phases of Bypass Surgery. I will break up the "Mental Aspect of Bypass Surgery into three areas: Pre-Operation, Surgery & Hospital Stay, and Post-Operation starting at home.
1 - Pre-Op
I'm sure this is different for each individual tackling Open Heart Bypass Surgery. My personal experience had a lot of waiting time in this phase - 24 days! That was good & bad! I had a lot of time to prepare for the big day. This included, leaving work & giving people time to make sure all was well at school. Getting ready at home for the recovery phase and organizing help for my wife Sue. Informing family & friends of the surgery. Educating myself about the operation and recovery phase. The bad news is have 24 days to think about the operation & focusing too much on the entire process. Too much information - there were days when I was thinking too much about the surgery! I found the best thing to do is to talk to others about the surgery - fellow "zipper club" members! I was interested in their experiences with the surgery itself, the medications, and their own recovery. And how they handled the mental focus of the entire experience.
2 - Surgery & Hospital Stay
Of course, the hardest part of this phase was the night before and getting to sleep. The 4 AM wake up & needing to be there at 5 AM went well(because I was half asleep!) Once we got to the hospital I ran into people I knew that made it very easy for me. Jaime(Oberholtzer) Owens is married to one of Jared's(my older son) best friends. Dave Stoll, an uncle to two ex-track athletes was working & we talked about the kids & track & field, before I know it I was out & waking up on the other side of Surgery on Monday afternoon. The care was constant & great in the ICU. The hardest parts mentally were the nights sleeping & all the tubes & meds. Each day they removed more wires & tubes & I was able to start moving around. Probably the last night, Thursday, in the hospital was the most difficult, because of the meds & sleeping problems. Going home Friday was a relief and I was ready!
3 - Post-Op
Home, in your own house was an awesome feeling. I had people helping, my older son, Jared, had time off from the Army. Sue took a few days off work. And, Christmas was around the corner. The holiday time was a good and bad time for surgery. The good thing was being around people & sharing the time together. The difficult part was being tired & trying not to help & overdue my activity.
The most important part at home was staying on schedule, up around 6-7 AM, shower, take meds, & continue to stay busy & smart about my recovery. Remembering not to lift more than 8 pounds, push or pull anything heavy, & keep my heart pillow handy if I sneezed or coughed! Trying to get to bed around 11 PM each night. As I said before, the most difficult part for me was sleeping.
In summary, here is what I think are a few key points from the mental aspect of "Open Heart Bypass Surgery".
1 - Stay positive! We have great care givers, family & friends! My job, as the patient is to stay posive & work hard to get better!
2 - Stay on Schedule! This keep you focused & helps consume the time in a positive way!
3 - Projects - have something mentally stimulating to do. For me it was the blog, my love of history, reading books, and beginning rehab!
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