I'm with my dad today as he found out he needs to have a triple bypass surgery next week. The cardiologist told him he has 90% blockage in three of the arteries and 40% in the fourth. Of course, this shocked us both (and scared us).

We later talked to the surgeon (who was much more calming and confident) who said this will be a good thing and will prevent a heart attack or stroke in the near future. He said my dad needs a valve replacement and a "maze procedure".

Do any of you have experience with similar procedures with a family member or yourself? Any words of encouragement or sharing of your experience would be appreciated. I'm curious how tough recovery is for something like this.

TIA

No experience but praying all goes well. And glad they caught it.

Modern heart surgery is amazing.

If they put him on Plavix, ask that they test to see whether it will work for him. It doesn't for some people. 8% effective in our case. Switched to Brillinta in our case but was too late by then and strokes got him after successful 5 way heart surgery. Don't be surprised when they say you may have to do it again in 10 years, or have stents at 10 months bc of another blockage. Have them check carotid arteries.

Biggest thing you can do is make sure someone good is looking at the whole picture, and not just their specialty.

You have to advocate for him, not just rely on doctors that use a standard method on everyone, or what Medicare covers bc it is cheap.

easttexasaggie04 said:

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I'm with my dad today as he found out he needs to have a triple bypass surgery next week. The cardiologist told him he has 90% blockage in three of the arteries and 40% in the fourth. Of course, this shocked us both (and scared us).

We later talked to the surgeon (who was much more calming and confident) who said this will be a good thing and will prevent a heart attack or stroke in the near future. He said my dad needs a valve replacement and a "maze procedure".

Do any of you have experience with similar procedures with a family member or yourself? Any words of encouragement or sharing of your experience would be appreciated. I'm curious how tough recovery is for something like this.

TIA

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My dad had bypass surgery in his 60s. Didn't slow him down at all and lived for another 20 years.

Pretty sure he ran a marathon after it (but at the very least kept running). Not downplaying the seriousness, but recovery can be solid. Great job catching it.

My Dad had a triple bypass in 1982 by one of Dr. DeBakeys team. He healed up quickly and spent lots of time fishing. I'm sure today's procedures are much better than 40 plus years ago.

easttexasaggie04 said:

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I'm with my dad today as he found out he needs to have a triple bypass surgery next week. The cardiologist told him he has 90% blockage in three of the arteries and 40% in the fourth. Of course, this shocked us both (and scared us).

We later talked to the surgeon (who was much more calming and confident) who said this will be a good thing and will prevent a heart attack or stroke in the near future. He said my dad needs a valve replacement and a "maze procedure".

Do any of you have experience with similar procedures with a family member or yourself? Any words of encouragement or sharing of your experience would be appreciated. I'm curious how tough recovery is for something like this.

TIA

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Happened to my Dad out of nowhere (to us, at least) about 15 years ago. Successful surgery and recovery. He's still around and active today with no real side effects. I hope that your father has the same experience and results!

I haven't talked about it much on Texags but I had a triple bypass 2 years ago in April.

I had 100% blockage in 2 arteries and 70% in the third. Surprisingly I had gone skiing 3 weeks before and did ok. Was having a lot of trouble on my daily walks and we knew something was very wrong. Turns out I had genetically tiny heart arteries.


So here is what to expect.

It f'ing hurts. He will wake up in pain and won't be able to sleep at all for days. I think I went a week before I slept more than an hour in a night. I was also hot. Very hot, like I thought I was going to die from heat. When he is in ICU he may want a fan. He won't be able to talk or write. The first 3-4 days are bad. It is hard to breathe. Your lungs are deflated for an hour or so so he will have about 1/4 the lung power of normal. Use that spirometer, which of course also hurts and makes you cough, which is bad.

Brain fog is real. Your heart is a dead empty sack for a long time and no matter what they do, he will lose memories forever and will not be as smart afterwards. After 6 months or so it will start coming back but some things will just be lost forever.

Take the chest precautions seriously. I had a bad cold a couple months after and rebroke my sternum just from coughing. So I had to have a second open heart surgery to bolt that stuff back together. It didn't hurt when the sternum bones moved but they moved all over the place and if it got infected I would have died, so we put in a bunch of plates, wires, and screws. See if the surgeon will do the plates the first time, otherwise he can break it by sneezing and when the cables dig into your sternum it hurts. Do not do the Robichaud procedure or whatever they call it. It is just extra wires and won't help. Titanium plates are the solution, see if they will do it right from the start.

The old people do better than the active ones because they will wait out the healing. I was out shoveling snow and riding a mountain bike. Don't do that, just sit in bed and let it heal. Walking is his friemd


He will most likely survive it, but it is bad. They told me I had a 4% chance of never waking up and a 10% chance of not surviving a month.

Long term... It is now 2 years later and I am back to hard mountain biking, skiing blacks, and kinda lifting weights. You will never lift again but I can do 25 pound kettlebell routines all day and they work. I'm not as smart as I was before the surgery and I don't have time for idiots at all. I went through a few months where I was easy to anger, but that has passed. Hardest thing is remembering names from people I knew back in high school and stuff. If someone says their name I know who they are, but if they talk about a person doing something it is gone until someone says the name. Brain fog is real