Motivation

Yesterday i tried to do some bits on the computer but i literally feel braindead sometimes. This is brainfog on a different level. I also feel like my eyesight has significantly deteriorated since I had the operation. I must get this checked.The scar is quite itchy.

I try day to day to pick up the pieces of my life. This is good therapy for me. Pardon me if my writing seems confused. I am going to go right back to the start to journal what I remember.

I brought far too much to the hospital. I remember thinking “God, most people get to go to the hospital to have a baby. At least they get a prize at the end. What will i get.. a new scar”.

My elderly parents dropped me to the hospital where we had lunch. I felt quite guilty in a way to put this burden upon them. Having not being in a relationship at the time. I brought a suitcase. We then went up to the ward to check in. I was given a bracelet and shown to my bed. I don’t think there were many women around at that point. My parents probably stayed about another 20 minutes. We said our goodbyes. It was at this point that it began to get real.

It was just me on the ward at that point. There was a girl to the left of me with her mother. She was talking to doctors and I was eavesdropping. From what I could make out she was having a gallbladder procedure. I remember the doctor explaining this was very painful. She was also having something done to her heart.

A couple of nurses came here and there to check on me. They told me i would have my last meal at 6pm and i was to not eat from that point until the operation. I wondered around the hospital a bit to get my bearings. I watched as the ward slowly filled up.

A couple of different doctors came to visit. There was so many of the it was hard to keep track. I tried to get comfortable and get used to where everything was.

I specifically remember the anaesthetist paying me a visit around this time. He was a very serious Japanese guy. He kind of sobered me up and brought me to the reality of what was about to occur. He said to me it was really important that I get a good night sleep, the night before the operation, otherwise it is not good if I was “stressed” in the operation. This freaked me out somewhat. I shook his hand and he said “don’t worry we will take good care of you”.

After this I think I had a bit of a cry. It was all getting a bit much. I spoke to the nurse about getting a sleeping tablet for later. She said she would ask doctor. I also had a nurse come and give me this solution. She said I was to wash myself with it that night, including my hair and I was also to wash myself again in the morning. An impending sense of doom began to arise within me.

I had my dinner around 6. I remember being pleasantly surprised by it. Later in the evening they moved me to another ward. This ward was full of ladies and some that that had just come from surgery. I remember directly across from me there was an Indian lady. She had a tube up her nose and looked to be in a lot of pain. She had a morphine button which she kept pressing. I remember the staff came and a placed a board under her to take an x-ray. I did try to talk to her but I don’t think her English was that great . She mentioned something about a valve.

To the left of my bed was an elderly English lady. She introduced herself and said she had heart failure. She had a scar where she had a procedure. I think it was something to do with her aorta.

I tried to settle but it was quite a weird and unsettling experience. I was watching my programmes on my phone and tried to do some reading. I went and had my shower and then later the nurse came with my sleeping tablet. I’m glad it wasn’t temazepam. It was a mild sleeping tablet. I drifted off into a lovely sleep but I was still awoken throughout the night for the nurse to do their checks.

Pre Med Nurse

Yesterday I had a call from the “pre-med” nurse. She just asked me a barrage of questions about which medications I take. Currently, I am taking Trelogy and Sertraline. Although i hate taking antidepressants, I have to admit I need them at times. I don’t take them properly and i know most doctors would moan and say, “You have to take them properly.” i don’t want to. I take them as and when i need them, which is usually around my time of the month for a few days or when i can’t deal with my dysfunctional family.

I can experience very dark depressing suicidal days. I always have and I always will.

The nurse explained that after the surgery I will not hear from the surgeon for 6 weeks, and then I will not hear from the cardiologist for 6 months.

They asked if I was scared of needles! This made me scoff. How could I be scared of needles when I’ve been a pin cushion most of my life? I have actually become very desensitized to a lot of things in life. Needles don’t bother me, however, I don’t like it when they take the blood gas. That really hurts, and sometimes you get inexperienced nurses trying to do it who aren’t very good at it. They have to stab you hard to pierce the artery to get the special blood to get your blood gas.

She then went on about getting a “dental review” as your gums have to be in a decent condition before cardiac surgery as any infection that enters the gums can go straight to the heart. I have always had to have an antibiotic an hour before any treatment.

I have the dentist on Friday as I have a cracked tooth. Hopefully its just a small cavity. Sometimes my life just seems like never-ending torture and pain. Torture from the dentist, torture from the hygienist, torture from my mental health, pain from my menstrual cycle. Does it ever end?

She mentioned about whether i had ever had a blood transfusion, which, to my knowledge, i haven’t. I will have to attend the hospital the night before the operation so that they can take blood. She also mentioned something about visitors can’t stay overnight.

I then asked her if i would need to have a catheter, to which she replied “yes”. This scares me. Just the thought of it. I also asked if they could schedule the operation so that it doesn’t coincide with the period, to which she replied, “Probably not”.

Just feels like I have a lot of battles ahead. Sometimes I feel so tired of fighting. It’s exhausting.

Full Steam Ahead

Today I successfully met up with the surgeon Dr X at St Thomas’ Hospital in London to discuss my future “hole in the heart” operation.

He seemed like a very nice doctor, which was reassuring, as not all doctors and surgeons are so friendly. After introductions, I went into full attack with my questions. Firstly, I asked:

“So why didn’t the operation I had to close the hole in my heart work the first time”? If I can jog your memory, I had my first open-heart surgery at the age of 2 and a half in the early 80s. I am now in my 40’s.

He simply replied, “Sometimes it just falls apart.”……. What falls apart? What the hole that was sewed up, fell apart? I always felt it was my fault somehow that i was facing another surgery. Back in the early 80’s, hospital follow-up or after care wasn’t exactly to the standard it is today.

My mum was simply told to “let her get on with her life”. She said the aftercare was “non-existent”. I always kind of assumed I was “fixed,” so in my younger days I lived my life to the full, let’s say, without thinking of the consequences. I was a bit wild in my youth, but no more or less than anyone else.

I did ask one of the doctors once if my wild lifestyle in my early years could have contributed to the hole reopening, but was reassured that no, it is merely “congenital,” whatever that means.

I then asked, so, how will you be fixing the hole in my heart? To which he replied, “We will be using a patch of leather from a cow.

How long will the operation take? To which he replied about 4 hours, including a heart and lung machine.

“Will you have to stop my heart”? For which he replied Yes we will have to stop your heart for about 20 minutes. I was like, “Oh my God,” this is getting really real now. I am basically going to be dead for 20 minutes.

I then asked the usual when, where how questions to which he replied it might take place in a few months.

I asked if he recommended I have the operation, and he said yes, i should have it as I will only deteriorate in time.

He mentioned something about blue blood, and that’s why my oxygen is low. It is currently about 85.

Finally, I asked,? “Will it improve my quality of life?” Yes, most definitely, he said. It should boost your oxygen to 100 percent.

So here we go on my road to heart surgery………….. Full steam ahead.