pain and soreness
In a message dated 11/12/03 9:19:01 AM, edgundy@... writes: MELATONIN Hi Ed, It is my understanding that people taking certain anti-depressants cannot take melatonin. I take Paxil and I think that it and Zoloft aren't to be used with melatonin. Also, I was wondering if you had discussed your use of serrapeptase with the cardio doctor. Sleepless in Fairfield. losing her ribbons as well as her whiskers formerly Countess Talks Too Much
Rita, my computer has been down for a couple of weeks. Are you saying that you still have chest pain after three years?? I ask because it's been over a year for me and I still have chest pain. I have pain medication that helps when it gets bad but I was just wondering if it will take three years to go away. Does any have a numb leg from having the vein harvested for the bypass surgery. My leg is still swollen some at the ankle and is numb all the time. Occasionally it aches when the weather is cold or just changing but its always numb. The surgeon told me it might always be that way. Ann
Thanks Rita for the nice email. I do try to keep busy. Guess the hardest part for me is that I agreed to this surgery even though I had many reservations. Everyone was telling me I didn't realize how bad I felt with so much blockage and once I recovered from the surgery I would be amazed how much better I would feel. In October 2002 they told me by that time next year I would feel better than I had in years. I didn't really feel bad until I was told that I needed an angiogram and then I was sick with worry for about 2 days. Now it is over a year later and I feel worse than I did before the surgery. Guess if I had felt bad before I might feel different about it. It is hard not to kick myself daily for ever agreeing to such a surgery. I had never even been put to sleep before this happened and I will never do it again. Can't take back what is already done but more needs to be done before a person is subjected to open heart surgery. Rita, you have a really good attitude about all this and I admire your courage. I wish I could be more like you and maybe one day I will. If I could just get back to the way I felt before (not much better like they said) I would be very satisfied and relieved. Ann
Dan, Don't you think your doctors should have told you about the long term pain prior to surgery so you could have made a more informed decision. Had I known that I would feel worse having the surgery than I did with the blockage, I would have just kept my blockage. I didn't even know it was there and it did not hurt at all. Now I have to put up with a numb leg, swollen ankle, sore chest and ribs and my neck has developed a funny sounding popping noise just in the past couple of weeks. I keep thinking and hoping the popping will go away. It is pretty bad to be told you have been feeling bad for so long you don't even realize it and then have the damn surgery and feel worse over a year later. The doctors and some of my family (trying to be supportive of course) were just wrong. I did not feel bad and now I do know the difference as I feel bad every day of my life and I hate it. Ann
Martha, I just hate thinking that I will never know what it was like to feel good again. I just made the biggest mistake of my life agreeing to this surgery and I thought I had already made some pretty big one. I was married too young, struggled as a single parent to raise my children and worked in a depressing job for 27 years always hoping that it would get better. All of that is not as upsetting to me as signing all those papers for this surgery actually believing that I did not know how sick I was and I would be glad when I healed up and felt so much better as that is what everyone told me even those who had this surgery in my family. Now they tell me about this pain and never really getting back to normal. I will have to live with it but I don't think I will ever like it. I am so glad for this web site. It's been the only place to get REAL answers. Ann
Dan, my surgery was October 2, 2002. Prior to that in 1991 I had a heart attack and angioplasty. The cardiologist at that time told me I had only one blocked artery and it was now open. He also said that my problem was smoking and if I would just quit smoking I should not have any more heart problems. I was scared to death then so I quit smoking, started walking nearly everyday about a mile. Started lifting weights which has probably kept me from having osteoporosis as I have a small frame. I did gain from 110 to 150 in three years after I quit smoking. My diet I'm sure had too much fat but I was very solid because of the exercise. I was 49 when I had the heart attack. At 60, my eye doctor wanted me to get the excess skin removed from my upper eyelids (day surgery with local anesthetic) to prepare for that surgery I had an ekg which was abnormal and said I had ischemia. The eye doc told me I had to see a cardiologist before he could proceed. The month before that happened we were in Cloudcroft, New Mexico (over 6000 feet) and I was hiking 4 or 5 miles a day in the mountains. It is something that I truly love to do. I did have two cardiologist and two cardiac surgeons look at my angiogram and all agreed that I had six significant blockages and could have a massive heart attack at any time. The bypass surgery was done the next afternoon and would have been that morning had I not had some questions. It was when I was asking the questions that all said I would feel so much better and at the time even though I didn't think I felt bad I decided that maybe I did and just didn't realize it. I also talked with a psychiatrist that afternoon and got medication to calm me down as I was having what I call a melt down. I did also continue to see the psychiatrist after the surgery and took prozac for the depression. It was really bad at that time as I was so angry I couldn't think straight. The medicine certainly helped and I started to feel mentally ok within a few months. Then I resigned myself to wait out this year of recovery everyone was telling me I had in front of me. I would say for about 6 to 8 months I just put up with how I felt and kept telling myself that within a year it would be behind me and I would feel great again. Now that its over a year, I am not a happy camper. I have lots to live for and have no desire to end my life. I have 8 grandchildren and 3 great-grandchildren and lots of reasons to keep going. My anger is over the "Oh, you will be amazed at how much better you will feel in about a year" and no one telling me anything about severed nerves in my leg and chest that leave you feeling like your whole body has been shot up with novacaine and it will not wear off. I did not know anything about the mammary artery being used until I asked about the pain in my left chest area and was then told about that. Would have liked to know about that before hand also. I could have waited days or even weeks if I had been given more accurate information. The doctors had my family thinking I was about to have a massive heart and die any minute. Today, I do not believe that was true. I do accept that I had extensive blockage and needed something but maybe I could changed my diet and increased my lipitor. They did increase my lipitor anyway. Today I eat very little fat, have lost from 148 (my weight when I was admitted for the angiogram) to 123 as of last week. I have not been on a diet just not eating all those things that are supposed to be bad for you. With very little bread and pasta and no dessert, a small amount of meat usually fish or chicken, I have just lost the weight. I have no idea if I am still building plaque or not but sometimes I think I am. Yes, I am scared about it all as I feel like I can't really take control of my life to prevent this kind of thing from happening again. I do have pains sometimes that I don't really know if its my heart or not. It's just pains I have never had before. At 61, it might just be the natural aging process but it does worry me. Thanks for writing to me. Believe me hearing from everyone really helps. Ann