praise God, DH is coming home from the hospital

[minniebeth]

Minky, I'm so glad your DH is home! There's no place like home!
Prayers for continued healing!

 

[luvmarypoppins]

What wonderful news Minky. So happy for you all. Continued prayers for your dh recovery.

 

[wallawallakids]

That is great! I am so happy for the both of you. Best of health to your DH and a speedy recovery too!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

It's been a tough go and he is exhausted (and snoring in the chair) but he is going home this afternoon. DH will need oxygen and a walker, and he can only go up the stairs twice a day but at least he can come home.

By the grace of God, this has gone soooo much better than predicted. The doctors can hardly believe he's going home so soon, 9 days. They're calling him a miracle man!

I suspected it might. They did a good job with him.

I will have to give you my low sodium spiel sometime.

Continued prayers. Recovery will continue at home now. It may take months for him to feel "human" again.

 

[Mrs. Ciz]

What wonderful news!!! Will keep praying for your DH's FULL recovery!

 

[Disney Doll]

So glad to hear this. We will continue to bombard heaven with prayers.

 

[Luvchefmic]

So glad to hear this. We will continue to bombard heaven with prayers.

Absolutely I like the way you said that !

 

[Katy Belle]

So happy to hear that he is home! Take it easy! Accept help from others! Hang in there!

 

[minkydog]

Thank you so much for your prayers. DH is doing a little better along. He's veeery fatigued and sometimes I have to force him out of the chair or bed to walk around a bit. But at least he's sleeping well at night.

DH managed to sit out on the porch for a few minutes. After 9 days in the hospital, it must have felt so good to hear the birds, feel the sun on his face, and watch the branches gently moving on the breeze.

 

[anniemae]

Awesome update! So glad he is home! Prayers for continued good health and improvement.

 

[kirstenb1]

Thank you so much for your prayers. DH is doing a little better along. He's veeery fatigued and sometimes I have to force him out of the chair or bed to walk around a bit. But at least he's sleeping well at night.

DH managed to sit out on the porch for a few minutes. After 9 days in the hospital, it must have felt so good to hear the birds, feel the sun on his face, and watch the branches gently moving on the breeze.

My porch is my favorite place to be all summer!! It'd be the first sign I was healing well!! Prayers for you all!!

 

[minkydog]

Well, it's DHs second day home and he must be feeling better. Today he decided he wanted to go walking at the mall. Um, no. Just taking a shower or eating dinner wipes him out. We compromised--I took him up to Wendy's. He can't eat very much but he managed to get half a small burger in and a couple bites of Frosty. When he came home he collapsed in the recliner and slept for 2hours.

When he woke up he had the most brilliant idea! He wants to take his sister camping--in 2 weeks! Nononononono... First, she's not a camper. Second, our trailer is 2 hours away, up in the mountains so everything is up or down hill. Third, he would need at least 6 oxygen tanks plus his oxygen concentrator. Maybe if *I* were going it would be okay. I can do the set up and take down by myself, but his sister cannot. DHs sternum won't even be fused for another 10 weeks. He's not allowed to lift, push or pull more than 5-lbs, for crying out loud! I can just see him roasting marshmallows by the campfire...on 3L of oxygen.

I'm glad he's feeling better but geez, it's going to be hard keeping him from hurting himself.

 

[I loveStitchnippyjon]

Well, it's DHs second day home and he must be feeling better. Today he decided he wanted to go walking at the mall. Um, no. Just taking a shower or eating dinner wipes him out. We compromised--I took him up to Wendy's. He can't eat very much but he managed to get half a small burger in and a couple bites of Frosty. When he came home he collapsed in the recliner and slept for 2hours.

When he woke up he had the most brilliant idea! He wants to take his sister camping--in 2 weeks! Nononononono... First, she's not a camper. Second, our trailer is 2 hours away, up in the mountains so everything is up or down hill. Third, he would need at least 6 oxygen tanks plus his oxygen concentrator. Maybe if *I* were going it would be okay. I can do the set up and take down by myself, but his sister cannot. DHs sternum won't even be fused for another 10 weeks. He's not allowed to lift, push or pull more than 5-lbs, for crying out loud! I can just see him roasting marshmallows by the campfire...on 3L of oxygen.

I'm glad he's feeling better but geez, it's going to be hard keeping him from hurting himself.

LOL! Minky, obviously DH is feeling so much better he is almost giddy! Keep him tied down and we will all share your joy at his rapid recovery!

 

[low-key]

hes back , sick people dont want to eat, healthy people want Frostys

 

[minniecarousel]

oh, Hun - you're gonna have your hands full! Glad he's feeling better, and yeah, you're going have to be the gatemaster. He can think and talk all he wants about things he wants to do - maybe next summer!!

 

[GraysMom]

Excellent news! I hope his recovery continues to go as smoothly and uneventfully as it has so far!

 

[Pea-n-Me]

OK I finally have a few minutes to devote to this. I looked but didn't find a sodium thread. As you may know, it is part of my job to educate people whose quality of life, and even life itself, depend on sodium restriction. Why? (For those who may not know.) Because people who have certain issues with their hearts require restriction because excess sodium causes fluid retention and often this causes the fluid volume in the body to be so excessive that the weak heart can't pump it to perfuse organs, and a whole series of negative events then occur that cause a person not to be able to breathe and to have swelling in their extremities, their abdomen, their lungs, etc. Basically they go into a fluid volume overoaded state.

Minky, your DH upon discharge, aside from his post surgical state, was probably feeling pretty good because a lot of his fluid build up was gone. He likely had a good amount of diuresis and with his new heart valve, his heart function is probably feeling the first "relief" he's had in a very long time. (Hearts like his are working so overtime trying to pump, it exhausts, and even enlarges them, etc.)

So his job, and in large part your job, since you help care for him, is going to be to keep him from becoming volume overloaded again; or in other words, keep him from gaining fluid weight back. Keeping his volume low will help him breathe optimally given his medical issues.

Ok so how to do this? There are three basic, fairly simple things. He needs to stick to a 2Gram/Day sodium diet (Strict!); not drink more than two liters of fuid per day (Strict!); and to weigh himself every morning making sure his weight doesn't creep up or go up more than two pounds in two days (Strict!). If it does, that is a sign of fluid gain, and should be avoided. If he does gain fluid weight, you/he will find it will correspond to his feeling a little short of breath, tired/fatigued, shoes and clothes a little tight, etc. Sometimes people actually gain 20 or more pounds in fluid weight in a few days after they've eaten a salty meal, gone out to a restaurant, a cook out, or during the holidays, etc. And yes, sometimes it can happen at home, even when people think they are being pretty careful. We see it all the time, and we have to help them recognize it, often for the first time even though they've had severe disease for a long time. It is a whole lot more than "not using the salt shaker" since sodium is hidden in so many foods.

2 Grams of sodium per day isn't that much in today's world. It's the same as 2000 mg. Keeping within the guidelines requires both reading labels and watching serving sizes, as most people today eat more than one serving of something. So, if something has 500mg per serving, and he eats two servings, that's HALF his day's sodium intake at that one sitting. It doesn't leave much for the rest of the day. And generally when people go over that, they get thirsty, drink more, sodium in the body causes fluid to be held onto, and a viscious cycle starts. Pretty soon, if it doesn't stop, they're back in the hospital for massive amounts of diuretics to get the fluid off, and that can be very hard on the kidneys. It's so much better to try and keep the fluid off in the first place. Again, we see this all the time.

Although it's admittedly challenging, buying, cooking and eating fresh foods, are really the best way to ensure sodium levels are kept low. It has to become a way of life, for life - not something done just for a little while. (And sometimes this, unfortunately, takes several hospitalizations to hit home.) You mentioned in a previous post that he had heart failure and followed guidelines for a while, but those had slipped, etc. Well I am going to stress to you now that you should try to not let them slip this time; that this is really something he's going to have to follow forever if he wants to continue to feel optimally well. Not saying it's easy, either, because I know it's not. Just saying that people have to figure out how to make it work.

Now here's where you're probably going to get mad at me. (But I'm ok with that if it helps him ultimately.) I took a few minutes to check out the sodium content of the foods you mentioned he had at Wendy's yesterday. Half a burger was approximately 400 mg of sodium, and a small Frosty had about 180. There's about 600 mg of sodium right there, or roughly 1/3 of his daily limit. I'm assuming he had NO fries, right? lol Cause that would really up the sodium totals pretty quickly, and one drink would also up his fluid totals pretty well, too. Now I know it's been a horrendous couple of weeks for you and you're likely exhausted and all that. I totally get it, believe me. But this is something you don't want to get into the habit of with with him, or pretty quickly he might be back to feeling not so well again. (Yes, it's that simple, unfortunately.) So fresh foods are definitely more the way to go.

I'll save the cooking ideas for the other thread but mainly here I'll say that the American Heart Association has some good information to read as well as a cookbook and recipes, which might be a good place to start. I've seen lots of people who are faced with this challenge to a really great job with it. As I tell my patients, it's great that he has someone like you who can help him out with this. It's more difficult for people who live alone. Also, tell your husbanc that (I said that) he needs to really take charge of this himself, ultimately, because it won't be good for your relationship if you have to be put into the position of arguing with him about it all the time. He needs to understand this is what's going to help him continue to feel good and to keep the fluid off long term. If he can do this, along with all the other things that were recommended, he has the chance to do well. And I'm so happy for both of you in this regard.

 

[AnnaS]

So happy to read your great news this morning. Glad he is starting to feel a bit better also.

We are on a low sodium diet. Do not count any mgs or anything but after DH's heart attacks, quadruple bypass and another surgery for fluid around the heart - we and dh, much better than I of course, have no salt or very low. We do not eat fast food places, do not fry, do not eat canned foods. Very few frozen vegetables. Cut down on red meat. Lot's of chicken/fish, vegetables and fruit. Meat is grilled or baked. No more hot dogs or bacon for him. Whole wheat bread also. He also weighs himself a few times a week.

Now my mom - quadruple, one valve replaced and one repaired (two years later) and still must weigh herself every day. We can also tell right away with her ankles if she skips a day or two of weighing herself. We adjust her water pills accordingly as her weight fluctuates. She is great for retaining fluid. But she does not follow the diet like my dh does.

You can do it - as long as he is willing. This whole thing scared the crap out of my dh so he has been good.

Good luck and yes, when ready walking is great which is what we do almost every morning.

 

[Lionqueen2]

Wonderful news! I hope your DH continues to do well and feels better and better each day.

 

[minkydog]

Thanks for the encouragement, Pea and Anna. I am monitoring DHs daily weight, fluid intake and sodium consumption. He is staying well within his 1800mg limit. I don't cook with packaged foods at all. Mostly fresh and some no salt added canned foods. At the moment he can't tolerate beef or seafood, so I'm grilling some chicken with no-salt spices.

I don't plan to make eating out a regular thing. It's way to hard to manage calories and sodium away from home. I knew that DH wouldnt eat much, which is why I opted for Wendys. He actually wanted to get Chinese food! Nononono