Everyone who is preparing for heart surgery feels fear and anxiety. Having an understanding of how the surgery is done, what you may encounter before and after the procedure, and how you will feel, will not only reduce anxiety, but will help you recover smoothly.
Every operation, tube and piece of equipment is critical to your recovery. The following information walks you through the procedure of heart surgery and explains the various feelings associated with it.
I. Routine examination and preparation before surgery
1. Before the heart surgery, you should be hospitalized a few days in advance to understand the nature of the disease and the purpose of the surgery with the help of the medical staff, to eliminate nervousness and fear, and to enhance your confidence in the surgery. At the same time, you should be familiar with the ward environment, relax and get enough rest.
2. You will have to complete the routine laboratory tests such as physical examination, chest X-ray and ECG. At the same time, you should actively treat your existing chronic diseases, such as hypertension, diabetes, coronary heart disease, bronchitis, etc., so that all indicators are in a better state.
3. It is generally required to quit smoking for at least two weeks.
4.If the body temperature exceeds 37.5° in the morning of the operation or if the female patient has menstruation, the operation should be suspended.
5, heart surgery generally requires blood transfusion, the patient must do cross-matching blood test before surgery. Allergy test of antibiotics should also be done.
Second, the night before and the morning of surgery
1.The night before surgery you should take a shower or scrub your body at the bedside to help prevent infection after surgery.
2. You should not eat or drink anything after 12:00 pm the night before surgery.
3.Some of your hair will be shaved off on the day of surgery. Those who wear dentures should remove them.
4. The nurse will usually wake you up at 6:00 am on the morning of the surgery to take your temperature and pulse, give you an enema to cleanse your intestines, and apply an antibiotic to prevent infection.
5.After the enema, you will have to go to the bathroom.
6.The nurse will give you a pre-operative injection half an hour before the procedure. Do not get up after the injection and wait for the nurse in the operating room to pick you up.
III. Transfer to the operating room
1.The nurse from the operating room will come to pick you up half an hour before the operation. Your family members should rest and wait at the designated place so that they can contact you in time.
2.You will find that the operating room is cooler and there is a nurse there for pre-surgery preparation, you can approach her if you have any difficulties, and the nurse will put you on the operating table.
3.The anesthesiologist and nurse will give you an intravenous needle in your forearm. A deep vein line, which is a thin, flexible tube placed in a vein, will be placed in your neck to give fluids. You will have a brief tingle while the deep vein tube is placed, and then you will not feel the medication or fluid enter your body. An arterial tube will be threaded through your wrist to check your arterial pressure.
4. The anesthesiologist and nurse will administer medication that will make you feel tired and you will soon fall asleep. At this point your upper extremity is secured to the operating table and the skin is re-sterilized.
5.Caption: After surgery ……
IV. Cardiac Surgical Care Unit
1. When you wake up after surgery, you will be lying in the cardiac surgical care unit. There are many tubes connected or placed in your body to watch for changes in your condition. Some of the tubes are connected to some equipment and make various ticking sounds, which are alarms. When these sounds are heard, it alerts the nurse to check your condition and adjust the equipment if necessary.
2. In addition, you will feel a tube being inserted through your mouth into your airway. You will feel straps around your mouth and face to hold this tube in place. This tube is an endotracheal tube that is connected to a ventilator and is used to help you breathe early after surgery. You will not be able to speak with this tube in your mouth. The nurse will communicate with you through hand signals or notes.
3. This tube will make you want to cough and retch all the time. However, it is important that you relax so that the ventilator can help you breathe. In order to prevent you from being unconscious when the tube is removed, the nurse will secure your hands with restraints.
4. When you are fully awake and breathing on your own, the tube is removed and cool, moist oxygen is delivered through the mask. Since the oxygen coming through the mask is cool and nebulized, your face will feel moist. As you recover further, you can breathe in oxygen through a nasal plug that fits just into your nostrils, and your nose will feel dry as the oxygen blows in.
5.After removing the tracheal intubation, you will feel thirsty, but because the anesthesia effect has not all disappeared and the gastrointestinal motility has not recovered, drinking water at this time will cause stomach discomfort, nausea, vomiting, choking and even accidental aspiration. You can drink a small amount of water to moisten your mouth. Therefore, you should listen to the arrangement of the health care personnel and start drinking water after about 2-3 hours.
6.When you can move in bed, you will feel your surgical incision and the incision is on your chest.
7.If you have bypass surgery, there will be a wound on the leg from the ankle to the thigh.
8.There is pain and soreness when you touch the wound, especially when you turn over and when you cough. The nurse will observe your pain and it is important to notify the nurse when you are in pain so that pain medication can be used.
9. In addition to finding your incision, you will also see two soft plastic tubes under your sternum called mediastinal drains. The mediastinal drains are connected to a container that drains blood and fluid from around the heart after surgery. There will be a pulling sensation on the skin around the opening where the tube enters the chest cavity.
10. Because of these tubes and the sutures and straps holding them in place, you will feel pain when you turn over, cough and breathe deeply. Please remember that the nurse can help you turn over and can give you pain medication.
V. Breathing exercises
1. After the tracheal tube is removed, the nurse will use a nebulizer inhaler to moisten your airway regularly. The nebulizer inhaler can turn phlegm and asthma medication into mist, and you can inhale the medication directly and evenly throughout your lungs.
2. Some hospitals provide respiratory function exercisers, which can help you exercise your respiratory function. Of course, you can also strengthen your respiratory exercise by blowing up balloons, getting out of bed early, patting your back, coughing and deep breathing. Respiratory exercise can effectively reduce the occurrence of pneumonia and atelectasis, which is crucial to your recovery after surgery.
VI. Cardiac surgery ward
1. With further recovery, many of the tubes and equipment used to observe your condition will be removed. You will usually be able to take oral fluids within a day. Of course the need for oxygen and drainage fluids will also be reduced. At this point you will be ready to move back to your room, but there will still be some tubes and equipment connected to you.
2. You will still have intravenous access to your upper arm for fluids until you can take enough fluids by mouth yourself. In addition, you will still have a face mask or nasal plug for oxygen, as it is still not easy to move around because of the presence of the fluid and oxygen lines. These devices are mostly withdrawn after 1-3 days, as you no longer need them at that point.
3. A urinary catheter is inserted into your bladder during the procedure to drain and monitor your condition. You may feel pressure in your bladder or have a constant urge to urinate. The urinary catheter is mostly removed within a day and you can use the potty or go to the bathroom. You may feel a burning sensation for the first few times.
4.As your mobility increases, your wound will feel sore, swollen and numb, and there will be bruising or redness in the wound area, which is a normal healing process and will disappear with time.
5.Your throat is sore, which is caused by the tracheal intubation during the surgery.
6.The discomfort will get better within a few days. There are chemical tablets or sprays to reduce the symptoms.
7.You may find that your wrist is bruised and swollen. This is caused by the tube used to measure arterial pressure. It will get better in a few days.
8. Sometimes you see two pacing wires leading from either side of the lower end of the wound. This is used to connect the pacemaker. They are used to regulate your heart rhythm when necessary.
9. You will not feel the leads connected to your heart. These are temporary pacing leads that will be removed after a few days.
10. Your doctor will encourage you to get down and move around as soon as possible, which is important for your recovery, but you should be careful not to use your arms to exert force as much as possible, because the force of your arms when getting up and turning over may affect the stability and healing of the chest wound, and it is better to ask your family or nurse to help.
VII. Dietary requirements after surgery
On the first day after surgery, you can only drink a small amount of water, and on the second and third days, you can eat liquid or semi-liquid food, and after four to five days, you can eat ordinary meals. Light, low-fat, high-protein and easy-to-digest food should be used.
VIII. Summary
1. The medical staff will do their best to provide information to help you understand the process and experience of heart surgery.
2.Understanding the various feelings that the surgery, tubes, and equipment may cause you will help to reduce your doubts and anxiety about them and clarify your role in the recovery process.
3.The medical staff welcomes your consultation and encourages you to ask various questions related to treatment and recovery.