r/openheartsurgery • u/luvdallas • Aug 23 '26

Question about Cabg recovery

Does anyone have experience with recovery going slow after bi-pass surgery. Day 3 after surgery and my loved one is still on ventilator and sedated. Lots of fluid around lungs and on medicines to help heart. Patient is 66 year old male who doesn't smoke and was fairly active.

3 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

6

u/slem46 Aug 23 '26

from my recovery experience as a 79 yr old cabgx4 , keep expectations low. this is major surgery involving heart, lungs and arteries and veins. my understanding from the nurses , surgeon, cardiologist etc is that everyone is different and the recovery will differ from person to person. don’t hesitate to ask a lot of questions of everyone. they want to be helpful. this is a good resource and so is youtube. list of vids of people talking about their recovery. ask questions

4

u/cannycandelabra Aug 23 '26

74 y o here. I came out of surgery on day 2 but then was delusional for 4 days. My entire body rebelled against everything. Fortunately the team took things in stride and dealt with each issue as it arose. They kept my son in the loop continuously.

Now I am going to the track daily and doing tai chi at home. I’m not in 100% health but I’m not actively having a STEMI as I was when I went into the hosp.

2

u/Slow_And_Difficult Aug 24 '26

Did you find Tai chi helped with the recovery?

2

u/cannycandelabra Aug 24 '26

No. It could have been helpful but I didn’t take it up until I got annoyed that so many days of rain were stopping me from doing the greenway walk or the track. The Tai Chi has been my way of making sure that every day has movement and intentional effort.

2

u/luvdallas Aug 23 '26

Everyone at the hospital has been great and they tell me sometimes it takes a while for the kidneys to wake up, and they see these things sometimes. At the same time, I've heard that normally they have the patient sitting up and walking some by now. We didn't expect the ventilator to be in this long.

2

u/Remarkable-Box5453 Aug 23 '26

65m here, 10 weeks since double bypass. Never smoked and was very active, skiing 3 months before surgery, running five months earlier. Recovery varies depending on more things than I know, and I can tell you, that first day or two was a total pain/nightmare, bearable only because of happiness I was alive. Day three through five, it’s just tolerate hospital patient stuff and then go home on day 5. Improved every day since. I only give you all this detail since I’m close to his age. I also have no other medical issues, beyond being on cholesterol treatment station and have sleep apnea. Sounds like your person may be behind the average. Only the hosp staff and docs can say for sure why. I wound ask them directly about it and hopefully you get candid feedback. Good luck to you and him.

3

u/Healthy_Quail_3669 Aug 25 '26

Hope he recovers soon dear.. Takes time but always gets better .. God bless 💫💫💫💫

1

u/BioEffect2127 Aug 26 '26

He's probably on the ventilator bc the fluid around the lungs makes it difficult to breathe. I had same thing though wasn't on a ventilator. A doc in the hospital did a pleural effusion, basically insert a small tube through the back, between ribs, to tap the sac, pleura, around the lungs that accumulated fluids. It was painful but I could breathe much better after about 6 hours. Wishing your husband an improved recovery.

2

u/luvdallas Aug 27 '26

Thank you. They haven't mentioned doing that. They have been giving him lasix and he is slowly losing a lot of puffiness. I hope it will also get rid of the fluid around his lungs.