Will do.
yep, heart stuff has really come a long ways...my wife had lymphoma at only 27, (started chemo on our middle sons 1st/2nd birthdays) the radiation treatments really messed up her coronary arteries, ended up with double bypass at 36(our youngest was only 7 months old at the time, and we had temp custody of a friends 9 yr old daughter- 2008 was a very rough year...) a pacemaker a few months later, then a stent last year... scary stuff for sure, but its really amazing how fast they get folks back on their feet.
weve got 4 boys (now 4,13,14,16) and our 14 yr old had three open hearts before he was 3 months old(weighed under 6 pounds at 3 months still), beat some weird 'uniformly fatal in infancy' lung disease, and has been 100% med free since he was 6 months old...his case was a outright miracle in so many ways...born on Easter Sunday just a day after our perinatologist told us he would have zero percent chance of survival, then they said he'd never get off the vent, then at 5 months 'might be healthy enough for a lung transplant', to a normal, bright, happy, albeit very skinny average kid...
we all go on 5 mile bike rides, have about the same health worries as anyone else (but in$urance is killing us), ive seen literally broken toes take longer recovery times than heart surgery.
Diet, exercise are pretty easy except like vacation road trips(pack healthy food cooler) and if he's a smoker, well that HAS to stop... luckily we are all non-smokers anyways, but Ive known a few folks that didnt quit, didnt watch diet after having issues, thats not good...
a few things I learned along the way- didnt know bypasses often only last a few years- but during that time the heart repairs itself by expanding 'collateral' arteries/veins- in my wifes case, she was VERY fortunate that her heart had already began sprouting collateral before her heart attack, and those little arteries prevented her heart attack from being fatal...she did lose a lot of function, but luckily shes small and gets by just fine on 25% ejection fraction...oh- big thing they dont tell you too- ejection fraction is normally 50-55%, not 100%- so a 25% is not great, but still near half normal...a good friendof our was so upset when docs told her that her husbands was only 20%, explained to her and she called her doctor- yes, a little less than half normal is better than 'hearing' it as 1/5 of normal as many folks expect 'normal'=100%... ejection fraction is simply a measure of percentage wise how much the heart contracts when it beats...wish docs would explain this better... and that 35% cutoff for a pacemaker is a safety thing, not a 'pacemaker is the only thing keeping them alive' type of thing... my wifes pacer still hasnt fired even once, let alone the defibrillator, its just there as they know at EF% under 35% can put at higher risk of ventricular fibrillation...
STRESS needs controlled- my biggest worry with my wife as she still can fly off the handle rather easily- if he's the type thats 'got a short fuse' he needs to let his doctor know, and deal with that now, if anti anxiety meds needed, so be it... I wish I woulda realized/had that discussion back post-op, and tried to nip that in the bud then... every time she gets upset it literally scares the hell out of me...
anyways, sorry for writing a book here- Godspeed on a quick and full recovery
Tim
