follow up

So today mom & I headed up to UCLA for my post-op follow up appointment. We were reunited with nurse Julia (although I don't quite remember her, maybe with scrubs and a surgery hair net I would). She removed the rest of my bandages, easily thanks to more of that Detachol, and said that my incision site is looking well. It appears there are no external stitches, just internal ones. My incision is held together with steri strips which need to stay on another week, but may come off as I shower. My incision is about 4" long. No signs of infection just scabbing. We discussed the list of questions I had. I can't start putting things on my incision to help it heal for about 6 weeks. We also discussed some of the stomach issues as well as my persistent back pain, and pain management. Upon listening to my lungs and heart she noticed decreased breath sounds on the right (which is a bit odd considering my pacemaker was put in on the left). There's a chance that I might have some fluid in my lungs (pleural effusion). This has been a common occurrence for me after my heart surgeries. I then went to the clinic next door and saw my nurse practitioner with the cardiology department. Based on my symptoms and history, blood tests along with a chest x-ray were ordered. Surprisingly, with the two visits with the nurses and the two tests, we still managed to get out of there in an hour. Hopefully, we'll know the results of the tests by early next week. I've also graduated from narcotics to Advil, no more antibiotics, and I'm sleeping in bed instead of on the couch!

Since my mom was my chauffeur for the day (thanks mom!) we picked up my brother and went to lunch, then to the bank, and then to a friends for a quick visit to pick up a tomato plant she had waiting for me (thanks Gina!). Once mom returned me home I was blessed to have dinner delivered shortly thereafter by a friend from bible study and her daughter (who coincidentally knows Jay), thanks Donna & Amy!. I'm a bit tired, but enjoyed being out of the house! This weekend will be full of more relaxing, healing, and hopefully more back massages.