My mom is currently in the hospital, had a minor heart attack. According to her doctor, this wasn’t her first. She had an angiogram this morning, discovered “a little” heart disease, she will have a viability test tomorrow to decide whether they will be placing a stent or doing a bypass.
She’s 79, and other than being tired, she claims no health issues. Her mother died at 59 of a heart attack and her father was one of the first triple bypasses done in Minnesota. That she’s made it to 79 had surprised her.
From what I’ve been reading, a stent is not that big of a deal, but a bypass is.
What is recovery like for either of these procedures? How limited will she be? She’s a very independent person, mows her huge yard, is big on gardening, refuses any assistance.
Almost five years ago, at the age of 67, I had a quadruple bypass, plus an aortic valve replacement. I was in the hospital a week, then had to return for two days due to problems with some of my medications. Other than that, my recovery was remarkably quick. I wasn’t allowed to drive for six weeks, but probably was able to much sooner. Around the third week I was able to do light housework.
I recently had a heart catheterization test, and the doctor said I had “four beautiful bypasses”. I’ve developed a new slight heart murmer, but no problems with the bypasses.
Each person is different, and each surgery is different. Your mom’s doctors will give her a complete list of what she’s able to do and what she isn’t. She’ll also have home healthcare workers to help out.
I am guessing that a stent is threaded through her leg into the vessel so it a lot less invasive then if they have to crack her chest to perform the bypass (attaching a piece of vein to the blocked vessel and routing it past the blockage into the heart).
My brother had his first heart attack at 38 and had one stent put in. I won’t go into detail since he had complications from it, but he had two more put in some years later and got out of the hospital after a few days.
This fall he had two valves replaced and even though they had to crack his chest, they had him up walking the next day. I’d say he was taking it easy for a couple of weeks and then gradually walking more and exercising. They were considering a bypass but didn’t/couldn’t do it (we didn’t get a clear story on that).
I’m not a doctor. I just had valve repair surgery. I could be wrong but I think a great deal of the time getting back on my feet was recovery from the affects of anesthesia. This would be the question to ask the doctor. I believe age is a factor in the affects of anesthesia.
It’s not a function of waking up after the procedure. It’s the time it takes to get the anesthesia out of your system. While my surgery went fine it was weeks of recovery.
I had a stent last year- it was put in through an artery in my wrist . I was in the hospital for 5 or 6 hours after the procedure and took couple of days off work - more because I was tired than anything else. I have been on plavix and was told I will have to take it for at least a year.
With my surgery, the problem wasn’t the anesthesia but the painkiller. They had me on Percocet, which caused hallucinations and paranoia. At one point I told the nurse that Hitler was out to get me, he knew where I was, and I couldn’t even get out of bed or defend myself. She said, “Oh, you need a new painkiller.” So they put me on Tramadol, and everything was copacetic. But I had no problem with the anesthesia; I was totally lucid in the ICU.
I wasn’t referring to lucidity I was referring to overall strength. I was pretty weak for a couple of weeks and that was after a week in the hospital.
But oddly enough heart surgery didn’t involve a lot of pain for me except for sleeping. It was hard for me to get comfortable in bed. I like to sleep on my stomach and that was almost impossible. Not that I didn’t try.
There is no easy answer as one or the other procedure is indicated in the appropriate circumstances.
The general medical opinion has been that when bypass is indicated, it tends to be more reliable in the long term, but the counter to that is that PCI (stenting) has made more rapid advances and some of the earlier failings have been alleviated with drug-eluting stents and followup drug treatments. This paper suggests that PCI may eventually overtake bypass as the preferred procedure; this one describes the current clinical trial.
I think an important point is that you need to be your own patient advocate because it may not be clear whether CABG (bypass) or PCI is the preferred option, and it may depend on the capabilities of the facility and certainly the preference of the patient. It’s indisputable that CABG is really major surgery – it’s the classic open-heart surgery – whereas PCI involves hardly more than some sedative and mild painkiller, actually less intrusive than a colonoscopy despite the fact that a wire in your vein is inserting stents right into your heart. You don’t feel a thing and are pretty much awake through it all. It’s not risk-free by any means and in the worst-case scenario can induce a heart attack, but fatalities are typically less than a fraction of 1% and patients typically go home the next day.
Stents go inside existing arteries and force them a bit more open, bypass cuts out the artery and replaces it with a vein, usually from the leg, MUCH more invasive.
After bypass (= open heart ) surgery, she will definitely need assistance. She may only be hospitalized for a few days, but the recovery at home is long and slow. She may be “home”, but she will not be able to live by herself in her home.
The first day(s) at home, she may be too weak to hold her body upright while sitting on the toilet. Even if she is strong enough to sit by herself, she may be too weak to stand up again by herself.
The next week or so, she will probably be incapable of bending over to put on her shoes
She may be unable to walk more than a few steps.
Each week there will be a gradual improvement. But it’s gradual…and she’s going to need help.
I had an angioplasty five years ago. Local anesthetic, I watched the doctor run a probe up through my thigh and through my heart, where he deposited a stent. A couple of times, he asked me to twist my body a certain way, to get around corners. It took me a couple hours to shake off the sedation, then he sent me home. Put me on blood-thinners for a few months, and aside from that, my life went on normally from day one. I take valsartan to control BP, and quarter-aspirin. Every year he listens to me with a stethoscope, nods his head knowingly, and we chat about sports medicine. (He was being watched by NFL scouts until he got hurt and had to fall back on medicine as an alternate career.)
I had a stent placed two years ago, via cannulation of a large vessel in my groin. I watched the procedure and talked with the anesthesia guy (I was curious why I felt zero effect from the fentanyl, accusing him of giving me saline. He gave me a bit more to shut me up).
I went home the day after surgery. I was supposed to stay home from work until after my five day recheck, but I was also told to avoid stress. I was stressed out over missing work so I went right back and had no problems.
I went through these problems fairly quickly following my bypass surgery, and some not at all. But there’s a big difference between a 67yo and a 79yo. Even now, at 71, I wouldn’t do so well if I had another surgery. The only real problem I had was getting extremely dizzy whenever I stood up. I had to be re-admitted, so they could monitor and adjust my meds.
I think it was around the 3rd week that my husband had to be out of town. I had no trouble taking care of myself.
Actually, the biggest problem was not being allowed to drive for six weeks. I hated that.
My husband has had both procedures. The bypass was when he was 49, 25 years ago. He always heals quickly and that time was no exception – he was home in 3 days but not supposed to drive for 6 weeks. The reason for that was the time needed for the broken chest bones to heal, which take that long for just about anyway. He didn’t want to follow the rule but the doctor explained that if he were driving and for any reason hit the steering wheel it could be disastrous. He also learned that even riding in a car was a bit uncomfortable for a few weeks.
Recently he’s had a few stents put in, and that was of course much shorter recovery time.
Right, I think it wasn’t until around the 4th week that I was even a passenger in a car (the seat belt was rather uncomfortable). But I was finally able to drive, after 6 weeks, on my birthday.
So, I was at dinner with my “teammates” from the race yesterday, and I mentioned that I had had a double bypass in 2010. One of the guys looked at me and said “you had heart surgery, and just ran a Spartan?” I nodded, and he said, “I think that deserves a toast!"
