I have been meaning to update this blog for the past two years but so much has happened that it has been very overwhelming. Right now, I am going to use it to update everyone about my mom’s recovery from heart surgery.
She had heart surgery on June 26,2026 to have a valve replaced. We were hoping they would be able to do the TAVR procedure, where they go through an artery in your groin because the recovery would be much easier. My mom has rheumatoid arthritis and is on a bunch of medications that make her immunocompromised. She also has a bicuspid aortic valve instead of a tricuspid aortic valve. She went almost 74 years without knowing she has a congenital heart defect. Needless to say, her medical condition was too complicated to do the TAVR procedure so they had to open her chest up to repair the valve.
This past week has all been a blur so hopefully I don’t mess up the details. She had the surgery and then afterwards, had trouble keeping her oxygen up. She was on the ventilator, then they switched to bipap. She then developed pneumonia in her right lower lung and eventually was switched back to the ventilator. A few days after the surgery, they did an echo and noticed that the right side of her heart looked small, almost like something was pressing up against it. She had a CT scan and it showed fluid build up around her heart. They had to open her back up again, and suction out all of the fluid and old blood. They did not find a leak when they opened her chest back up.
She had 4 chest tubes placed and they noticed she was having a good amount of new blood and fluid coming out. Her blood didn’t seem to be clotting so they gave her a bunch of different clotting medicines and blood products including blood transfusions, platelets and plasma. Shout out to everyone who donates blood! Thank you! I appreciate you doing that for people like my mom.
Also during this time, her kidneys weren’t functioning so they put her on continuous dialysis.
Her blood pressure and heart rate have been all over the place so they have given her medicine to raise/lower it when needed. She is also in Afib so her heart rhythm is messed up. She also has a temporary pacemaker and if her heart rate dips below 40, it automatically starts.
At one point her oxygen was at 100% on the vent. That is the scariest thing because there is nothing they can do if she would need more help than that.
Yesterday(7/5) from 8am until about 2pm, they turned off the vent and she was breathing on her own with only cpap I was told. She and her lungs got tired and they put her back on the vent with some sedation so they could let her body rest and let the vent help her for a while. The Nurse Practioner told me the only way to improve her lungs was for her to use them. She said it’s hard for her to use them because she hasn’t used them in so long but the NP said she did great for hours and that we should be happy about that.
The clotting medicines seems to be working and there has been much less drainage from the chest tubes. Today, they took two of the chest tubes out and apparently my mom shook her head, saying that she felt better without them there. She is currently still on the vent and my dad said there are talks about doing a temporary tracheotomy on her. I told my dad and sister that I am against that because that is one more surgery that she would be having where something could go wrong. She has a bad track record of bouncing back after surgery, based on the two surgeries she just had. They just got the blood to start clotting and she was doing ok breathing for while, I don’t know why they want to jump to a trach so quickly, even if it’s only temporary. I know she can’t stay on the ventilator for a long time but they haven’t even tried having her breathe without the tube in. The nurse told me the other day that breathing with the tube in is very hard, that it’s basically like breathing through a straw and you tire out quickly.
The dialysis team is going to put her in 12 hour dialysis tomorrow instead of continuous to see how she does. The doctors told my dad that when my mom(hopefully) gets out of the hospital, that she will need to go to a rehab facility because she won’t have the strength to do anything by herself and we won’t be able to assist her with everything that she needs.
I don’t even want to worry about that yet. I just want her to start improving. Hopefully, she will not need the trach. We are not sure what the future holds so please send all your thoughts, prayers and good vibes her way. Thank you!
