Recovering

It's nearing one week that Jim has been home. Here are the highlights...

• Learning what a heart healthy and diabetic friendly meal plan looks like.
• Incisions are looking great.
• Blood pressure has been doing really well.
• Cardiac Rehab therapy will begin in a couple weeks. 
• Two appointments scheduled for next week. An ultrasound to check for blood clots as a precaution, and an appointment with the surgeon's office. 
• The swelling in his legs has gone down considerably. His right leg looks pretty normal.
• The left leg is better, but by no means is it good yet. Most of the leg has been bruised with varying colors of purple, blue, and green. It's retaining a lot more fluid than the right leg, but a lot less than it was. This left leg is where the balloon pump was inserted from Friday morning (post cath) until Tuesday morning (day after bypass). This is also the leg where they laparoscopically removed several inches of his vein between his knee and his ankle, and used it in his heart. 
• The first couple days he went for lots of short walks. Most were just wandering around the house. A few were outside.
• After a couple days, his left leg started hurting, especially when first standing up. A call to the nurse, and it was discovered that this is normal, and may last a week or so. 
• He is still sleeping in various chairs and recliners. There is some tailbone pain, but it's more of an expected pain due to just sitting a lot in chairs and just becoming sore. A few different cushions are being tested, including a tailbone cushion, to see if they help.
• Jim was able to lay down and take a nap in the bed today. It's the first time since January that he has been able to lay in the bed. NO PAIN when he laid down! Which means that almost all the pain and spasms and issues he has been having were due to his heart arteries being mostly blocked. It's a strange feeling to lay down, waiting for the "back pain" to start, and realizing that the pain isn't going to start because it was a heart issue all along.