December 2010 – A third heart incident…

It was cold night at home and I was just resting on the sofa, and my heart was starting to do something unstable like an irregular beat, and I really wasn’t sure what was happening.  My heart rate was racing and giving a sensation of panic in my mind.  I kept resting and mentioned to my wife how I was feeling a strange sensation with my heart.

After a few minutes everything seemed to be okay, and the heart rate settled back down to normal.  I rested some more and everything felt like I was okay… until I went downstairs into the basement to get something, and all of a sudden I was feeling very weak again and felt like I was going to pass out, but managed to get stable enough to get back upstairs and then decided I needed to go to the hospital.

My wife drove me to the hospital and I was soon put in emergency to get checked and monitored.  I stayed in the hospital for another 3 days.  More tests were done, echo cardiograms, and blood tests… the tests found that my calcium levels were very low, so I had to have some IV fluids hooked up and monitored for the remaining days in the ER.

The emergency room was completely packed with patients of all ages, young, middle-age and elderly.  There was also a homeless man that was admitted to the ER, as he was rather ill and crying out loud and moaning for all the discomfort he had… he was feeling very stressed about his condition. His clothes were very dirty and his hair was long, tangled and matted and his face weathered, beard untrimmed and discolored… the man was looking quite disoriented, and he was in obvious pain… such a difficult thing see anyone in such a desperate condition.

The ER nurses soon got the homeless man some food, and gave him some medication to help calm him down.  Afterwards the homeless man had settled down and he was moved to another area of the ER.  I had walked passed by his bed on my way to the washroom and I couldn’t help but notice a strong smell of sewage on his clothing, hair and beard of this young man.  Such an awful condition I thought, and I felt so sorry for this man as he rested and fell asleep.  Such a difficult life I thought… how some become so desperate and lost at such a young age too!  They truly need help.

That night in the ER was another difficult night to sleep, as there was very old woman but she actually looked like a man, and even the nurses weren’t sure if this patient was a man or women, it was quite funny to see their faces when they realized that it was an older woman.  The peculiar thing was the number of family visitors (about 10 or more) that came to see her, as they were all so very concerned and stood around and spoke quite loudly in their own language, I believe it was Portuguese or it could have been Italian (not sure).  Well, the visiting hour was over, but the group of visitors were not being very courteous of other patients in the ER and didn’t leave when they were told. The ER patients were really tired and just wanted some sleep! A nurse had to again come-by and ask the visitors to leave, as they were not being considerate of the other patients.

As the ER was overflowing with patients I was put in a middle row aisle… with several patients on each side, and two other patients were also in the same middle row. Everyone had tried to sleep as best we could… in-between blood pressure checks during the night and all the chit-chat of nurses and staff, but it seemed that it wasn’t too long ‘til the next morning.

The ER staff soon changed their shifts, and a new group of nurses came in running about and checking on patients.  Soon the breakfast meal would arrive as everyone was getting hungry and anxious for something to eat.

An interesting thing happens in the ER with patients that are close-by; we quickly become friends and talk about different things, but mostly about our condition or about the service or sometimes about how bad the food is.

Some patients have more severe  conditions, either physical or psychological problems.  One patient was brought in the ER one night, a young girl who was having a difficult reaction to some drug that she had taken.  Hallucinations, yelling and screaming, crying and moaning in pain… it was an awful state to see and hear her difficulty.  The ER staff knew what to do with this type of problem, as this must happen on occasion, perhaps more frequent than I realize… however, the patient after about 30 minutes was calmer and probably due to some sedative to help her quiet down.

Hardly a dull moment in the ER… but sometimes the extreme conditions of certain patients are difficult to understand.

My stay in the ER was for only 3 days and I was tested to see if there was any other fluid build-up around my heart. Thankfully, it was all okay… the reason I was having the irregularity of my heart rate was due to “some normal adjustment” of the heart post-surgery.  Something that I wished the heart surgeon or a nurse would have mentioned to me before I left the hospital.  The low level of calcium in my blood was soon renewed with the several IV bags I had taken during the 3 day stay in the ER.

I soon returned home again and was glad that my road to a full recovery was still in progress…

Thanks for reading… until another update

TM 🙂

Nov 23rd 2010 – After 37 days my final return home! …

It was another early morning in the hospital, and a team of doctors and nurses were taking care of many patients on the surgical ward. The usual group of doctors came into the room, with a large pull cart of binders and medical supplies. They would read out loud for each patient their “situation” for the day, such as: if we would need more tests or if we could be ready to return home.

As I was still waiting for that final “okay” to go home, I was hopeful that the blood test INR reading would be at the point where I could go… but I heard that my reading was just a bit under the correct amount, at 2.4 level (which it should be between 2.5 – 3.5 INR)… the INR reading is a blood test that tells you how thin your blood is, and it needs to be within this range to be safe in a patient with a mechanical heart valve, otherwise the blood could clot easier and cause problems with the proper function of the valve.

However, my reading was at 2.4 but one of the doctors of the team stated: Mr. Hamelin you can go home today!… wow I thought… really?… that’s good news! For the past 12 days I was connected to an IV unit for Heparin (blood thinner)… and the dosage had to be done very slowly and gradually, as I had perhaps had too much Heparin in my system that may have caused the internal bleeding around my heart, which caused another collapse on my first return home.

At this point, my blood was still low in iron, as I was still looking rather pale and should have had some iron supplement, but it was not part of my discharge. However, later when I arrived home my wife called the head nurse at the hospital and she mentioned that I should have had some kind of iron supplement prescribed. Luckily for me, there was some iron supplements at home that I could use, and the nurse indicated how much I should take per day etc.

Well, finally I was able to return home, so I made arrangements with family to come to pick me up and it was near lunch time. My wife and father came to get me, and since it was still too difficult to walk too far, all heart surgery patients need to be escorted on a wheelchair by an orderly. The wait was long to get released, as the first part of the release is the paperwork, and all the prescribed medications that a nurse would stop by to explain things and then request for an orderly to take me down to the main lobby for my eventual return home.

I was still feeling somewhat nervous and anxious, and the long wait for an available orderly didn’t help the situation. When I was finally able to go, I was feeling somewhat eager to get going, and it really felt strange that I needed to be in a wheelchair to get to the front door… but then there was another wait in the main lobby. The orderly left me with my wife in the lobby, and then I just went to sit down in the lobby area to wait for my father to come near the front door.

The front lobby was busy with people coming to and fro, and was all a buzz of people traffic… I had almost forgotten how busy a hospital can get… especially since I was in somewhat isolation for over thirty-seven days… it was a strange feeling indeed!

Finally my Dad had arrived at the front door, as it was just total traffic congestion in the front parking area. I had managed to walk to the car, got in and sat in the back seat. As we travelled home, I could feel every little bump and movement of the car on our merciless roads in Montreal, and the bumpiness was somewhat of a shock to my heart and chest area, so I just held on tight, and positioned myself as best as possible to help lessen the impact of those crappy roads!

Our first stop on the way home was at the pharmacy, where I could get the prescription medication. My wife went to get the prescriptions filled while I stayed in the car with my Dad. We talked a bit about a few things, and it wasn’t too long to be on our way home.

When I finally arrived home, it was cold outside but I managed to get in the house, walk rather slowly up a few stairs, then sat down in the living room couch… I was finally home!

My recovery process was still to continue… but this time I was home for good I thought.

Thanks for reading… TM 🙂

Nov 21st 2010 – Meeting Jessica Bondar a young heart patient…

It was a November evening in 2010 when the Montreal Alouettes football team were playing and I went just across the hallway into the “family room” to watch the game. The hospital floor has a family room with a TV a couple of couches, some chairs and a table.

As I was settling into a section of the sofa with my IV unit still connected to Heparin… I had to plug the unit into an outlet because the battery in the unit didn’t hold a charge for more than 9 minutes!  Soon I heard a noise of a mechanical pump working while a young girl came into the TV room while pushing a smart cart with that special mechanical heart.  This mechanical heart was connected to Jessica’s heart with tubes and as she came into the room she said “hi” and easily started a friendly conversation.  She asked me what kind of heart surgery I had, and how I was feeling… and we had a nice conversation about each other’s heart condition. Mine being an aortic valve replacement, but for Jessica’s heart, it was much more serious.

Jessica’s heart was permanently damaged from a rare flu virus causing infection and it caused a serious health condition. There were large bruise type markings on her arms, and in other areas due to that rare and devastating virus!

Jessica had been connected to a mechanical heart for about two years!  And at night she was in a special room with a larger mechanical heart that was connected to her during her sleeping hours.  Jessica mentioned that she has been waiting for a heart donor for a long time, as her heart couldn’t be fixed, she would need a transplant heart.

If that wasn’t complicated enough, the type of heart donor would have to be a young person with her same blood type, which was a rare blood type. The size of the heart also needed to be from a small person, as Jessica had a small frame, and not any size heart donor would do!

Jessica mentioned a few things about her family, and also about her “crazy” boyfriend who had got badly injured from some “stunt” he did, and she joked that he got so badly injured that he would need to stay in the hospital, and that way he could spend more time with her! 🙂

Our conversation lasted for about one hour, and I was so pleased to have met Jessica, and I was also saddened by her condition, and was hoping that something could be done soon to get her well again!

Jessica also had spoken with my brother at one time earlier, when I was in my hospital bed sleeping.  As my brother came to visit one evening, he wanted to see how I was doing, but since I was asleep, he didn’t try to wake me.  Jessica had said to him: “if I was sleeping, and a family member came to see me, I would want them to wake me, so I could see them”… and my brother thought that was very nice of Jessica to say that, but he just sat in the room near me, and kept quiet just watching me sleep, then he left to come and visit another day.

I didn’t get a chance to speak much more with Jessica after our chat, but I was glad to have met her, and was encouraged to see her so positive and ambitious to get back to living a life she had so many things she wanted to do!

Then later in April, 2011… I heard of Jessica’s passing due to a severe heart failure, and she was not able to recover.  This news was very sad and painful, as I felt so bad that she wouldn’t be able live on to do the things she wanted to do, with her life and great ambitions.

I had written a small note for Jessica, and had posted on her funeral guest book page (online) and also put this note on her Facebook page:

Dear Jessica… You were more than just a “candle in the wind”, as you have captured the hearts of many who had the pleasure to meet you.

Your smile will forever be remembered, and your gentle spirit and strong character is a positive influence to all who have met you.

You will be missed greatly by many, and especially your family and closest friends. You will always be a shining light in this world, and always be remembered for your gentle ways, your genuine spirit and your daily fight to live!

I thank-you Jessica, for that brief moment that I was able to meet you and speak with you. My heart will always remember you, and would have wished you had that special donor to help you live on and on.

May your soul rest in peace, and may your family also find some peace and rest, and to find the strength again to love the life you celebrated in, regardless of the circumstance.

May your spirit forever live on in the hearts of many!

… from one damaged heart to another… may the pulse of life remain in those who cherish you forever!

Nov 16th, 2010 – The “Zipper” gets removed…

It was a Tuesday morning, another day in room S8-42, still feeling the pain of open heart surgery, and at this point was forgetting about all the other important things in my life, but just thinking about if I’ll ever fully recover from this critical operation!

You try not to think about it too much, but you just find yourself wondering when this recovery process will all end, and when you will feel more like “yourself” again.

The usual routine in the hospital ward would go on, with small victories of getting something to eat, or doing something easier today than what it felt like yesterday.

You just want to take a shower, get dressed and just feel normal again!… but alas, there are still many more treatments, daily physio-therapy, breathing exercises, more medications for one thing or another.

My scheduled “zipper” removal of those 50 (or so) surgical staples was finally going to happen… although the mere thought of that was a bit un-easy, as I thought that it would be quite uncomfortable to go through.

The nurse on duty had come to do this treatment in the afternoon, and with some special medical supplies, and then began to remove those staples one by one.  It was somewhat uncomfortable for sure, but not unbearable.  The nurse asked me if I wanted to keep the staples as a “souvenir”… but no thanks, I was just glad to be rid of them.  The nurse used a special tool, something shaped like nose-pliers, and a tin container to drop the heavy staples in… it was like “clip, clip, clunk”… for each staple being removed. It’s like I really needed to hear that? Afterwards there was some type of small “bandage tape” (sutures) that was put near each spot where the staples were.

Anyway, after that ordeal was done, I just settled back into bed, did some reading and falling asleep to catch up on the much needed sleep… as you get so few hours of real sleep in a hospital.  Just when you’d be falling off to sleep, something would wake you up, or the nurse would stop by to bring you medication or take your blood pressure & temperature, this could happen at different times of the day.

Evenings were always something to look forward to… as sometimes family and friends would visit, or there might be a Canadiens hockey game to watch.  Time felt like it was “standing still”… all the time you just keep feeling like will this ever end, when could you finally get back home and start your life again.  The thought process would be difficult at times, especially when you’ve had an active and busy life to all of a sudden come to a screeching halt!… it was strange to process and try to be positive on things… and the medical system can help heal you of the physical problem you’re going through, but the psychological side of things, tend to be forgotten.

Later that evening, I was taking my exercise walk in the hallway and noticed two police officers just sitting outside a patient’s room… a bit strange I thought, as they would stay near that room and were watching carefully everyone who came near the room.  My guess is that there was a certain police matter about the man. This went on for the remaining week, as different police officers would come and go, and guard this patient’s room.  Perhaps the man was a criminal who was critically wounded, or maybe he had to be protected from someone, not sure.  I was somewhat of a worrisome thought

Well the next day would be another day of recovery, and just trying to build up some strength again with certain physio exercises and walking up and down the hallway and breathing exercises.  Always connected to an IV unit, and rolling it around with you all day.

Thanks for reading… until another day then, and still another week or so to go before I finally return home for good! 🙂

Nov 15th, 2010 – Just another day of my ongoing story…

Another Monday morning arrived, and the usual daily routine would begin… let’s see what could possibly happen in our little world of our four walls?… wake-up time is 6:00am, with the early morning orderly, nurse visit and our blood technician of the day (a.k.a “the happy vampire)… afterwards it was a long wait to eat something, as breakfast was always served after 9:00am.

I had some small “stash” of fruit, yogurt, or crackers to help hold off the hunger somewhat, and when the meal finally came it was usually good enough to “fill the void”… I know it sounds a bit like being a prisoner, but in a way that is how you feel when you’re hooked up to machines and such… minimal movement is the way it is!

So, the morning time was also some movement of patients who are either coming in from surgery, or are heading out for another test or whatever.  A new patient was rolled into our room, he had large bandages on his legs, and also hooked up to an I.V. unit.

The man had just had surgery the day before, and it was a “by-pass” surgery… as the bandaged legs were a “give away”, as an artery is removed from the leg to use as a “by-pass” artery on the heart.  Although it looks more severe on a patient to have this kind of heart surgery, the more difficult one is a heart valve surgery… as valve replacement surgery usually takes longer to recover from in comparison to a by-pass surgery.

Our new “neighbor” was a rather heavy man, yet he was also quite jovial in his demeanor, we introduced ourselves and his name is “Claude”… he was quite happy to be alive for sure and seemed rather pleased at the result of having open heart surgery again… apparently it wasn’t his first time!  Claude had his first heart surgery a few years ago, but it seemed that his diet didn’t change well enough, so he had to have another surgery to fix his clogged arteries.

I must say that I felt rather uncomfortable with the fact that this man was so “jovial” about having open heart surgery, as this is to some degree a burden on our health system I thought, and our effort to good health should be something we all strive for, and not take for granted that our health system will “bail” us out every time we become too careless or complacent.

My other neighbor patient, Charlie was a bit “out of it” with his ongoing problem of coughing pain and discomfort, his lungs were in real bad shape!  Nurses were taking special precaution to have him monitored carefully, as they had to try to get him “healthy enough” for his upcoming operation.

The remainder of my day was spent reading, contemplating life, or watching some TV… and trying to grab some little sleep, if possible.

We all had curtains that could be pulled around our bed area, so that would give us some sense of privacy… but really didn’t stop any noise level in the room.

Later that evening I was told that tomorrow (Tuesday) I would have my 50 staples removed… just something to look forward to!

Until the next day in room S8-42… thanks for reading! 🙂

Nov 14th, 2010 – Another Day in Room S8-42

Finally the morning shift began, and with some familiar faces of nurses coming to check up on the patients.  Some of the nurses remembered me, as was just there a week ago, but then I’m back again!  I had to have an oxygen tube hooked up to my nose to elevate the needed oxygen my body needed.

If you’ve never had oxygen “pumped” into your system, it actually feels quite uncomfortable, and the “smell” of that pure oxygen is like breathing in a chemical of some kind… perhaps like an ozone smell?… I don’t know, it’s a bit hard to describe, but once you smell this, you remember it forever.

Anyway, here I was still being poked and prodded with medical equipment, and of course had the long tube coming out of my belly again…and I can’t really move much, for sure.

So the morning “wash-down” would soon begin, as an orderly would pass by with a set of towels, wash cloths, wash basin and a clean hospital gown to get cleaned up for the day.  But, shaving and a shower are totally not feasible with all the tubes and equipment hooked to you.  Just changing a hospital gown, gets pretty tricky with all the IV tubes still connected… so, it was a bit insane just doing some of the little things that normally would not be an issue!

The morning routine would always involve a blood sample test, a weigh in, a regular blood pressure and temperature checks and the distribution of your medication for the day.

I still had those 50 staples (or more, I couldn’t count them!)… holding my incision, they are really uncomfortable too… but I knew that I was soon due to have them removed! On my initial “release papers” I was to have a CLSC nurse stop by my house on Nov. 15^th to do the procedure of removing all those staples!

However, since I was back in the hospital, I was told that I’d have them removed in a couple of days, by one of the nurses on duty.  Something to look forward to I guess?… although it’s always good to have some of those “things” removed (or disconnected) after all… it just tells you that “you’re getting better”! 🙂

The afternoon soon came, and I was trying to catch up on some sleep?… then my neighbor’s wife had come for a visit!  And she was quite the character as I soon found out! She too had some health difficulty, as she was pushing a “rolling” walker  with some kind of large handbag attached… and then as she came in to see her husband “Charlie”  the  rather loud conversation would begin!

The conversation was mostly about things like:  “did you sleep last night”?… “did you take your medication”, or “what did you eat this morning”?… “so and so wants to come and see you”… “have you heard when you’re supposed to have your operation”?   And the way she would speak is like “slow motion” and very “mother” like towards him.

Well, not so bad if the conversation was some quiet chatting, but oh no!.. it was rather quite loud!

Charlie is elderly and had trouble hearing, so he wore a hearing aid, when he remembered to “put it on” though!  Their conversation would “go on and on” about small details and some little chit-chat… but the real problem that started to get quite annoying was the amount of times everything said had to be repeated over and over! As Charlie couldn’t hear well, and even with the hearing aid turn up to full level!  Often the questions had to be repeated to him… either the nurses, an orderly, a family member, or some visitor.

Also, Charlie’s voice sounded exactly like Homer Simpson’s father… you know, the grandfather on the Simpson’s show? I never thought I’d hear someone actually speak like that, with the “old-man – shaky” voice, and I can “impersonate” that voice too! … but I think you get the idea?

So, I just needed to tolerate all those “little conversations” for the remainder of my stay… regardless.  Sometimes I just found them totally hilarious, and other times (especially when I was over-tired)… well, those conversations would just get totally annoying, as they would often end-up arguing over small concerns, such as a phone call, or where the electric shaver disappeared to…

The remainder of the day, I would try to read something, or watch TV… there was a small LCD screen TV that you can rent by the day… it helped pass the time while you were pretty much strapped to your bed with all the IV connections etc.

Anyway, tomorrow would be Monday, back to some of the regular staff and perhaps some new visitors too!

Thanks for reading… and I will update with some more stories soon 🙂

Nov 13th, 2010 – Return to room S8-42

Around lunchtime, I was transferred to my “regular” patient room, and it was the room and bed location that I had when I first came into the Royal Vic Hospital… which is quite coincidental, or maybe just a matter random choice, not sure. As I was rolled into the new location, I noticed my new “neighbour” was an elderly man, who was just sitting on the side end of his bed.

He was finishing his lunch meal, and as I was settling into my new spot I noticed that he began falling asleep while sitting beside his food and large jug of ice cold water. His head was “nodding off” and he kept trying to stay awake and tried to put his head on his hand to rest.

Eventually, he fell his head forward onto the large pitcher of ice cold water, and knocked it over… it spilled all over him and onto the floor. Of course this quickly awakened him, and then he looked over at me and just began to laugh!… I said to him, “Are you okay?”… he nodded, and soon an orderly came into to see what happened, and quickly got a mop and towels to clean up the spill and mess.

Little did I realize at the time, that this man and his wife would become an incredible annoyance in the days ahead? The nattering and arguing nonsense was a bit much, I’d say! Enough to drive you a bit crazy when you’re trying to get some peace and rest, as you have to deal with your own discomfort. But as you know, you can’t really “choose your neighbours”, no matter where you live or stay… just have to sometimes tolerate some of the nonsense that happens.

Well, the day continued with all the regular checks from nursing staff on week-end duty. I was hooked up to two IV tubes, one on each arm. One was Heparin (blood thinner) and the other was an antibiotic medicine for an infection I had from the surgery.

They had to alternate with two antibiotic medicines that day, so when I had one IV bag finish, the other bag was immediately hooked up… oh such fun eh? After our supper that day, the night staff of nurses came through to see their patients for their shift and all that needed to be done. Well, for me it was a need for some new blood transfusion… two units (litres?) had to be put into me, but the problem was the IV needle was too small to process the blood?… I don’t know for sure, but the nurse had to call a “blood tech” to come and insert a larger IV needle into my arm, so now I had 3 IV needles plugged into me! Wow, aren’t I the lucky one, eh?

My neighbour also needed a couple of units of blood that night, and also another treatment of lung decongestion… he was in pretty bad shape, and needed to get healthier before being scheduled for an operation.

The nurse that was taking care of the two of us, she was in my opinion just amazing, because she was working so hard at watching all the important details, and still trying to comfort us as best she could. I think that nurses don’t get enough credit for all the incredible things they do… many of them are truly awesome at what they do and “the stuff” they put up with at times.

So, there I was just laying and being all hooked up, you can’t really move much… have to use those “portable” urinals, and such. Thinking if this will ever end?… as it takes its toll on your spirit.

Being restricted to much movement, you find yourself “day-dreaming” and hoping for better days. Every little detail in your surroundings suddenly become something of importance… like the clock on the wall that has the wrong time, the windows that don’t open because they put thick plastic all over the windows for the upcoming cold winter, and you can’t even look outside without it looking blurry. Makes you feel really confined and isolated at times, but the real consolation was the 24/7 nursing care!

The night went on, but it was really a long night of discomfort and very little rest… something that is difficult, but you just need to push through it all, and hope the new day will work out better. Sometimes it felt like the morning just didn’t come soon enough, especially if your sleep was so deprived. It’s not like you can do much, that’s just the way it is… when you’re hooked up to IV units, there’s very restrictive movement permitted, because you can’t just disconnect things and start walking… you have to stay put for the most part.

Well, the next day would be better I thought… and I will update more of that story in the next posting… thanks for reading! 🙂

Nov 12th & 13th, 2010 – Transfer back to S8…

Nov 12th – The early morning vital checks began… check blood pressure, body temperature, all tubing connections, oxygen level, IV fluids, IV pump… and then “it’s time to remove the breathing tube”!… oh yeah!… let’s get this long tube out of my throat please!… that’s more of what I’m thinking!

Finally, the breathing tube is removed, and it hurt a bit going through that “extraction”… the doctor and nurse also tell me that I’m not to speak for about an hour or so, to give a chance for my throat & vocal chords to heal up. For sure, they were still feeling sore and swollen somewhat.

But I’m beginning to feel hungry, so it’s soon time for some breakfast!…oh yeah! … but hey, it was like yuk!… something like a luke-warm cream of wheat cereal!… little milk, a few other un-mentionables!… hardly a meal eh?

Well, soon the ninja turtle nurse passes by to see me, and then she starts asking me questions to check if I know where I am, what my name is, what day is it etc.

But hello?… I’m not supposed to talk for about hour? Did you hear the doctor say?

Anyway, I answered the questions carefully and just carried on with finishing whatever I could of the breakfast meal. The morning went by rather slowly… so, it was a good chance to catch up on some sleep!… but not to be… as more checks on the patients and more chattering of staff moving about, ah but so is hospital life!

My wife had returned to see me for the day visit,  always a pleasure to have a loved one nearby… but unfortunate that I wasn’t able to talk much.  So, I was just looking around the room with the occasional glance outside the window… just waiting and waiting for the “next event”.

So, just before lunch time the call was made, and I was going to be transferred from this nice room (cardiac ward) back up to the surgical ward (S8).  My wife came with me, and listened to all the chit chat of the staff etc.

There was more commotion, nursing staff, orderly staff come by to disconnect certain tubes and also relocate portable units on the bed. An argument between a nurse and orderly begin on where to put the blood drain unit… the orderly was insistent to put the drain unit at the foot of the bed, but the nurse argued that it could easily break there and said it should be put at the side of the bed. Well, the argument went on for about two minutes or so… then finally the orderly just put the unit where he thought it ought to be, and ignored the nurse completely.

I was then transported through the corridors, hallways and into an elevator… soon arrived on the surgical ward (S8). A quick “check-in” with paperwork with the head nurse and then rolled into the special recovery room again… called the “Step-Down” room. The difference with this step-down room is to have all the recent patients coming from surgery to be closely monitored by the nursing staff (24/7). This is to be sure of no complications and may be acted on immediately, if needed.

However, the problem of having many patients in this room is lack of good rest, which is due to an ongoing activity of nurses and staff with the many patients having some discomfort or complications, either something physical or sometimes psychological depending on the patient.

I recall trying to sleep that night, but there was a man that kept crying out “help”… help me” … help… it was constant & persistent!… which prevented many of us other patients from trying to sleep! At one point I was so fed up with his annoying crying that I yelled out for him to shut-up! We were all suffering from our surgery too!… but we weren’t constantly complaining of having pain or discomfort… many of us were trying to be considerate of others!… but not him!

An orderly went to see that man, had tried talking to him to stop his constant complaining, as he was disturbing all the other patients in the area… but the man didn’t seem to understand or care about anyone else. Finally, a nurse must have given the man a sedative, as after 20 minutes or so… the room became reasonably quiet, with only the continual sounds of machines beeping, and some patients snoring.

Nursing staff would mingle about during the night, but were always close by and at their work stations keeping close watch on all the patients. Nightly checks on the machines, IV pumps, and the routine BP checks would continue throughout the night.

Nov. 13th – Soon early morning came with the day routine that began at 6:00 AM with all the patients being weighed, an orderly would bring a rolling weigh scale, and each patient in turn have their weight recorded. Soon the day staff would begin their shift and the routine hand-over of patient’s charts and details given.

Many of the patients would try to catch-up on some lost sleep, as we wouldn’t have breakfast until 9:00 AM. However, the orderly staff would pass by with towels and face cloths to get cleaned up for the day. But when you’re feeling totally wiped out and exhausted, you don’t feel like washing up… so the orderly would usually offer to wash the patients, if they accepted some help. It was always done with proper privacy, regardless.

Anyway, the remainder of the morning wasn’t too eventful, except that a young girl came into the room with a special rolling cart that she was pushing, it was a heart pump machine that was connected to her! I could hear the heart pump working, making a swooshing sound as the young girl just walked around, talking with some of the nurses and patients.

I thought, wow she’s amazing to be walking around with a mechanical heart pump! … and with a smile on her face as she was talking to patients and nurses… later I had met this young girl as she was walking through the hallways on the S8 ward, her name is Jessica Bondar. I was so impressed by her, and yet felt so bad that she had to be hooked up to that machine, yet it was the main thing keeping her alive!

Noon time came, and it was time for me to be transferred to a “regular” patient room where I would remain for another 11 days in the hospital. On my next posting, I’ll describe some of the events that happened and my acquaintance meeting with Jessica Bondar.

Thanks for reading… 🙂

Nov 11th & 12th, 2010 – 2nd Time to the Operating room…

After the diagnosis from my surgeon doctor to have the surgery to remove the excess fluid around the heart, I needed to have my “blood thinning reversed” before the operation.  An intravenous fluid with vitamin K was injected into my blood stream… to make the blood thicken enough, before the operation.

My INR test (blood thinning test) that day had indicated too high a rating of 5.0, but for my case, it should be between 2.5 and 3.5, anything higher or lower is a problem.  The lower number meaning it’s too thick which could cause my mechanical valve to clog up and fail, and too high a number could be dangerous for some internal bleeding, or excessive bruising, or whatever.

So, once the situation was okay for me to be sent to the operating room, the ER nurse and orderly prepared to take me to the operating room.  I was transported on the hospital bed still connected to various tubes, oxygen, intravenous fluids, and brought to the “pre-op” room, where there are several beds, nursing staff and technicians.  All the necessary cleaning and bandage dressings are checked, and all tubing connections checked.  There was some ongoing chit-chat of the staff talking about the Canadiens hockey game, which caught my attention while  I was lying down just waiting for the roll out the operating room.

Well, soon enough it was time to be moved, so off we went to the operation room area.  The corridors leading to the operating rooms are well air-conditioned and with some good air filtration, you can sense it as you pass through the area.

I was brought to the main entrance of large glass doors that have automatic rolling to slide the doors open when entering the large corridors that head towards the various operating rooms.  At the main entrance, I had to wait for some details to be sorted out with the staff, some OR staff and surgeons were talking over a matter of concern, and then I was asked to sign a special “release” paper that basically states that I understand the risk of an operation, and that I am giving them permission to operate on me.

Another person from the OR staff came to speak with me, and he asked if I was feeling
any pain, and I said that I had some pain from the anaesthetic they gave me during last operation, which he quickly retorted… “the anaesthetic doesn’t cause any pain”… perhaps  he didn’t realize that it’s the muscle relaxant that could cause the pain afterwards?… well what do I know?… I’m just the one who had to deal with all that post-op pain!

Anyway, soon I was off to the operating table!… and as I was wheeled into the room, it was
a different room than the one I had the major surgery.  The room looked a bit like a work shop?… The walls are made of standard construction block, painted a medium green color and all kinds of equipment and OR staff moving about the room.  The OR table looked really small I thought… it wasn’t as nice or warm as the one I was on during the open heart surgery.

The staff helped me get on the small table, but there was a problem with the head rest
being way too low, I could not put my head that low with my back much higher, so they quickly adjusted the head rest, and it was better for me.

The surgeon doctor was soon at my side and talking to me, and actually was saying silly things that was making me laugh, he had quite the sense of humour.  The surgeon is a man I saw on a few occasions, he is Hawaiian and his demeanour was comforting in the way he spoke with people, you can usually tell when someone is a “people person”. This helped ease the stress I was feeling.

The anaesthetic was soon applied, and off I was to dreamland again… just remember waking up in the post-op room, there were more tubes inserted, a large one down my throat, and the large tube connected on my belly area (same spot as the previous operation).  My hands had to be secured down at my side, as I couldn’t stand the tube in my throat, I would get panicky and try to remove the tube… I hated having that tube down my throat… it was painful and felt like my throat was opened twice its size!

The ICU staff continued to monitor my condition, and within an hour or so I was stabilized enough to be transported to the cardiac ward.  I hadn’t been on the cardiac ward before, it is a new section in the hospital, not the same floor as the surgical ward.

There wasn’t any space in the ICU rooms (over-crowded), so I was transported to the cardiac ward (medical 5) and was then put on a really comfortable hospital bed!… it was the most comfortable bed I’ve ever been on, I guess it made up for some of the discomfort of having all kinds of tubes hooked up to me. The room was very nicely decorated and arranged in this cardiac ward, it had a large window with a nice view of some trees and landscape. The room also had some individual air and heat control, so the room could be properly adjusted, as needed (contrary to the surgical ward, where the whole floor has one temperature, much too warm!).

As I had this large tube down my throat it was totally impossible to speak… so it was like charades to communicate with the nurse and my wife.  I was getting hot with all the covers on me, and since I couldn’t move much I needed help just to remove some of the covers etc.

Soon there were some cardiologist doctors that came to see me, and once again this “whisky cowboy doctor” showed up, with a bunch of other cardiologists.  Then the whisky cowboy doctor approached me and said something rather peculiar “I know what you’re thinking” … “that your condition of heart fluid build-up will happen again”… “but this is a very rare condition, and it should not happen again”.  But all I was thinking, “no that’s not what I was thinking at all!… I just wanted to have that damn tube removed from my throat!

He then just walked away after that little revelation!… that was the last time I saw him.  Then another cardiologist said something really more significant, as he told me that my lungs had some edema (swelling) and that I needed to keep that “special tube” in my throat for a while (turned out I needed to keep it in my throat the whole night!)… to give my lungs a chance to heal.  Well, I was in for a rather restless night… and I remember telling myself not to panic and try to relax… and just try to get used to have a large tube down my throat… it was really difficult for sure!

During the night, I recall getting too hot with the covers on, and tried to signal the night duty nurse, but I couldn’t find the “special call button”… it had fallen out of reach, so I just started banging the side of the bed with my leg and kept hitting it to hopefully get the nurse to hear me.  Finally she did, came in to see what was wrong… and of course I couldn’t talk, so I had to do some charades to show that I was getting hot, and needed the  covers removed… as at first she thought I needed more!… so, it was annoying but amusing at the same time… finally she got it right, removed the excess covers and adjusted the temperature control in the room to be much cooler!… thank you!

The morning soon came, although I felt like I really didn’t sleep… a different nurse came in for the day shift.  The nurse was young and quite a cute looking South American, but I’m not really sure, she had a slight Spanish accent.   She found the room temperature too cold for her, so she put a special hospital bright yellow slip-over, the color against her dark skin was quite striking, but when she had her sleek rectangular black rimmed glasses on and her hair pulled back and tucked away, that made her totally look like a Ninja turtle!… I tried not to laugh or say anything… but I couldn’t speak anyway, at least not yet!

Well, there’s still some more story to tell… but will be on my next posting!  Thanks for reading! 🙂

A Special Note: “Waiting to see my Dad…”

Below is a story that my son wrote for school, he agreed for me to post it on this blog.

“It’s November. The temperature is –25°C plus windchill. It’s 3:00 pm. My grandfather and I dropped off my mother and grandmother.

We parked in P1. We walked into the Royal Victoria Hospital, sanitized our hands and proceeded to the coffee shop, then to the elevator. “Ding!” went the elevator as we arrived on the 5th floor of S pavilion.

This is the surgery and ICU, or Intensive Care Unit, floor. We waited for two hours, my grandfather and I ate supper, we returned and waited another three more hours.

The wait was excruciating, I was hungry, I was out of cash and we had no entertainment other than my DSi and boring French TV.  We finally got news.

The surgery was a complete success and it had ended five hours before. We went to see my father. “Boop! Boop!” went the monitors, in every block the first thing you would notice is the tube proceeding from underneath the blanket leading to a large tank where the blood was being drained to.

Then you would notice the tube going down the person’s throat, leading to the lungs.

There was the smell of latex, alcohol scented sanitizer and medication was in the air.

I only felt the slightest bit comfortable when my father woke, I was the first person he saw.

We only left around 10:30 pm. We got home at 11:00.”

Matt Hamelin