Hi there, this is a story from down under in sunny Sydney Australia.
I have today celebrated my 38th birthday and also day 14 of my recovery from my 2nd operation to repair my Aorta.
The 1st opp was performed in on 26 October 1997. It was a lucky find as I was a fit and healthy person with a bit of a sore chest and my aneurysm at the time it was detected was 7.4cm or about 3". The aneurysm had started to dissect by the time the operation was carried out. The ascending aorta, base of the arch and part of the descending aorta was replaced using Deep Hypothermic Arrest, (DHA). The deep hypothermia time restriction prevented the top of the arch being replaced and it was hoped all would be OK.
Wrong. The visit to the cardiologist some 3 months ago revealed a 5.5cm about (2 1/4 ") expansion. This was the failure of the remaining natural section of the arch ( the button) and it contains the 3 main artery's the Right Carotid Artery, the Left Carotid and the Subclavian. The operation revealed dissection in each of these and they have been replaced in varying lengths from the top of the arch.
The operation went well with 41 minutes of DHA required this time around. I have lost my singing voice and the damage to the voice box remains uncertain at this stage. The nerve is damaged during the operation and or the voice box may be effected by the sutures. Have to wait and see on this issue. Seeing as how I could not sing to save myself before it is of little concern and is able to be repaired if required. I also have some nerve damage in my leg where the heart/lung machine was connected.
Apart from all these minor issues the whole thing went great. I got sick of hospital food on day 5 and was able to talk my way out of hospital and home at this stage. I had some fluid on my lung and the open air and exercise has fixed that problem. A bit of licorice also helped dry the lung out.
I have been walking about 30 mins each day and increasingly gaining strength with my 11 1/2 month old son providing inspiration and my beautiful wife support and comfort . I have a sore chest and have been using very little pain medication which is great. The muscle strength is returning slowly and painfully with the risk of overexertion the risk I have to be careful of.
Hope some of the above provides some hope for those "lucky ducks" like myself who get to go a 2nd time around and the fear of the recovery is the greatest worry as you know there is very little you can do to influence the outcome of the operation.
I feel so much relieved and have only upon my release been studying meditation and Tai Chi to help in my recovery and the healing process. This has given me a positive focus and the Buddhist philosophy of suffering is also easy to grasp at day 8 of the post op recovery. LOL.
I hope to return to work as a senior Project Manager/Civil Engineer in the early part of 2002. There is still a long way to go before then.