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More difficult than I anticipated

I realize it's only been 8 days since my chest was zip sawwed open, my heart stopped for a few hours while the doctors worked on it, and then rewired together so I can breathe without my sternum splitting back open, but that doesn't make what I am going through any easier.

There are just no words that can adequately describe how difficult this whole ordeal is.

One step I have taken is to stop taking my pain meds this morning. They only make me feel strange, and don't seem to do much to alleviate the pain, although the oxyconton does allow me to sleep a little better.

My last pill was an Oxycodon at 1:30 AM. I'd only been taking 5 mg every 4 hours with 325 mg of Tylenol in between (couldn't tolerate any more). It's been almost 7 hours since my last pain med, and the pain is still tolerable. (I'll see how much that changes as the last of the residual medicine in my body wears off.) If it gets any worse I may just try a Tylenol and see how that goes.

In the mean time I am progressing. My breathing gets better every day. I am almost up to 1500 ml on the Voldyne 5000 Spirometer, and I'm able to do 3 walks a day for 7 minutes each, covering just over a 1/4 of a mile. That might not seem like much, but it is a workout.

OK, enough for now. Still don't have much strength, but I did want to give everyone an update.
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Comments

Alan said…
Your 21 minutes/day of walking is a lot more than I do. Maybe you'll inspire me to start exercising.
1:33 AM
Marc said…
Then that will be at least two good things that come out of this
3:18 AM
Gerry said…
Want to use my GPS so you don't get lost on your walks?
Trust me you will get better everyday, good choice on the meds I did the same to know how I really felt.
5:48 AM
Marc said…
Yeah well, that didn't last long. I'm back on the meds again. They seem to take just enough of the edge off to make life more tolerable. I'm still in pain, but without them my HR goes up about 10 bpm. So for the mean time I'm back on

Going to the clinic tomorrow to discuss my progress.

And no thanks on the GPS. I already have one, and using it. :)
7:00 AM
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