Discharged from Surgeon's Care

WEDNESDAY, JUNE 23, 2010 7:14 PM, MST

I had a wahoo! moment this afternoon. I saw my cardiothoracic surgeon, Dr. Smollens, and she discharged me from her care! That's when the wahoo! moment came.....along with, I must admit, some tears. Lots of emotions rolled into those puppies. The flood of feelings and thoughts caught me off-guard. They shouldn't have because Dr. Smollens told me at my previous appointment that today would be my last visit with her. I guess that's my reward for being such an obedient patient. I will resume visits with my regular cardiologist, Dr. Heuser, next month. You know I didn't let Dr. Smollens escape without talking to her about returning to running. Actually, she brought it up before I even had a chance to mention it. She told me that she'll leave it up to me when I try running again. My initial reaction was, "Wow, she trusts me to make that decision?" But as we talked in length, she explained to me that she based the statement on her experiences of working with runners post-bypass. She added that the runners knew when their bodies were ready to take on the pounding. For me, it could be as long as another six weeks or as short as another two weeks before I may feel like trying to trot. So, it'll come down to this:  when I decide to try and run and if I experience pain in the area of the incision, then I'll need to hold off. Based on that statement, I recognize I'm not ready to try running because I still have a constant sensation of pulling at the site of the incision (6-1/4" long) which I feel it every time I inhale. Then, when I try and move my upper body in one direction, it's as if the incision stays stagnate; there's no give in that specific part of my chest. So I guess it'll come down to this:  I'll have to do what I've been doing for several years and that's listen to and read my body. Looks like this will be my next assignment.

As Dr. Oz says, "Don't take your health for granted."