Jamey Tucker
Sep 8, 2018 · 2 min read

A phone call from a nurse

I’ve had quite a difficult time sleeping. Although I haven’t shown any symptoms of my overworked heart, when I lay down at night to sleep all I can feel and hear is my heartbeat. Sometimes I think my chest is hurting. I’ve read a detached aorta might feel like your chest is tearing apart and that’s what I’ve experienced several times while I’ve been trying to fall asleep.

One night I thought about calling 911. Yeah, the stress is making me feel all sorts of pain and shortness of breath. It’s not in my chest though, it’s in my head.

Is this normal?

Today a nurse practitioner called to answer some questions I didn’t get a chance to ask my surgeon. He told me I’ll spend 24–36 hours in intensive care and another 5 days or so in extended care.

I’ll be expected to sit up the day after my surgery and take a few steps. He said I’ll feel terrible and need to go back to sleep after something as simple as brushing my teeth and taking a shower.

A week after being home I might be able to stay awake for more than a few hours. I’ll be sore. I’ll take heavy narcotics for the pain and just to be able to get up and get around the house.

I hate narcotics. I asked if I might be able to deal with the pain with over-the-counter painkillers like Tylenol and Advil. He said probably not for a couple of weeks.

The surgery was rescheduled for October 2nd. I thought that was a bummer because I was still planning to take a trip to Las Vegas for a marathon with my son. I realized today that was never going to happen. Las Vegas requires a lot of walking; even walking from the entrance to the hotel/resort would take 400 steps. So that’s out.

After 4 weeks I’ll start feeling normal again but I won’t be able to do much with my arms. The chest bone will take about 12 weeks to repair itself. That means by Christmas I’ll be almost back to 100%.

I’ll need to be mindful of pneumonia. Too much time lying in bed could result in fluid building up in my lungs. I might need to sleep in a chair some nights. And the ticking from my new artificial valve will likely keep me awake.

The Bentall procedure isn’t exactly rare he said, but it isn’t something they do every day. My surgeon is one of the best at them.

I did ask the nurse practitioner to do one more thing for me. “Tell me I’ll get through this.”

He said I would. I’ll be fine.

And I believe him.

Jamey Tucker

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Tech TV reporter in Nashville. I sing in the car