Home Again...

I'm home! I'm home!

It feels good. I wouldn't feel quite so good about everything if my mom wasn't here. She'll be staying with us for about a week. She was a cardiac nurse when she was pregnant with me, so she knows what she's doing.

My cats have decided that all of the flowers I've received make nummy snacks, so these have been put in our bedroom (the flowers, not the cats).

So Friday comes and I got some Adavan to help relax me before surgery. I think that maybe that made me too relaxed, if the uncontrollable giggling was any indication. Then they finally wheeled me into the OR (after shaving me - YES shaving me! Why? They were operating on my heart!)

So I'm in the OR and was reminded to talk to my anesthesieologist about my voice. I'm a singer and was worried about the breathing tube's effects on my voice. So the guy says, "You're a singer, huh? Why don't you sing something for me?" Of course, this is AFTER he had injected my IV with the knock-out solution. So in order to prove I could sing I belted out a hasty (and not very good) rendition of Pink Flloyd's song, "On the Turning Away." Apparently that worked because they did use a smaller tube.

There were some complications with my surgery. When they cut me open they discovered that my right atrium had fused to my breastbone. That required a bit of finessing. As they were working they also discovered an atrial septal defect that they didn't know I had. Apparently the only way to know about this is to do an esophageal echo, something that I've never had done before. So they patched that up. There was also way to much scar tissue to bybass the heart in my chest, so so the heart-lung machine was connected to my femoral artery. I think that's it.

The echo I had yesterday showed that my pulmonary valve is functioning beautifully. There's no regurgitation whatsoever with the new valve. Hooray! Thanks, Dr. Dearani!

All of my friends were right - I didn't feel like doing ANYTHING at all while in the hospital. So all of those movies and books I brought didn't even get looked at from across the room. I am going to attempt to watch a movie tonight - kind of a welcome home type thing.

Well, I'm going to attempt to eat now, so I'll be signing off. Let's see what delicious low-soduim delight my mom and hubby come up with...

Have a great night!