So on August 12 I had a procedure to install a covered stent into my Aorta. This was done at Children’s hospital. Let me say that the experience there was totally different than at the adult university hospital.
They asked if I had a comfort item, which i did, my teddy bear Smoky (sorry Pooh is just too big). I was wheeled into the OR with Smoky beside me, and as I was being put under a nurse was talking to me and stroking my hand to keep me calm.
Everybody was so nice, patient and understanding.
I was in the ICU with kids of all ages, Once I woke up in the night to a nurse trying to take my tempature while i was sleeping. “I’m sorry we try not to wake patients… ya know babies you wake them you take them”
Seriously, parents having their infants and toddlers having to go through heart surgeries where they know that this likely will not be the last surgery they will have. I don’t know how my parents did it with my older brother having surgery at 7 months, and then open heart surgery at 7 (back in 1978). Then me when i was 12 in 1990. My coronary in 2021, this surgery again in 2022.
Some things that I know you are asking…
No I was not padded.
I go to the childrens hospital as I have a congenital heart defect, and that is where adults with these defects are followed up at.
I came through the procedure ok, my blood pressure is the lowest it has ever been, I am off 2 of my BP meds. Except for an allergic reaction from the contrast used with the cardiac catheterization all was good.
The incisions were right in the area that the bottom diaper tapes would have irritated, so it was a week of not wearing…. Not that i would have wanted to anyways, as I broke out in hives, and was black, blue and sore in that area.