CABG or heart bypass surgery, anybody had it?

[curves2000]

Hi all,

Long story short, my mother may require it due to a situation of being clogged up a lot in her arteries and heart failure.

She recently had a heart attack and has other risk factors, what really gets me is that she had all the symptoms and had been to see every specialist and was in constant communication with her medical team about the exact symptoms that lead to her heart attack.

An emergency room Dr was able to diagnose her issue within 15 minutes as heart failure and she is now meeting with a surgical team about the viability of the surgery.

Have any CPer's had this surgery? Who was your surgeon? Your experience with the process at the Foothills hospital, the recovery and everything else?

Thanks so much with any information regarding this. I am worried sick over this as it's my mom, I love her and I want her to come home soon. She's a young women at 64 and there is an entire section of life I want her to be able to experience going forward.

[GoinAllTheWay]

My spouses Aunt just had this.

Honestly it sounds pretty scary but seemed really straight forward tbh. She went in for the surgery and was out and back at home within a few days.

If it wasn't for the scars, you wouldn't know she had any kind of surgery. She looked no worse for wear and was out having a walk with us when we visited this past summer.

I was genuinely surprised how quickly she bounced back.

[I_H8_Crawford]

My dad had a triple bypass a few months ago.

He was lucky - didn't have a heart attack or stroke yet, but had chest pains. They took him in and saw 3 arteries were clogged.

He did the surgery and was sore for a couple days, and is still rehabbing - he still can't lift anything heavy including his grandkid, but hes able to move around better now and can drive.

Looks 1,000,000x more healthy than right before/after the surgery too. Foothills is one of the best cardiac wards in Canada, if not THE best, so your mom should be in good hands.

[mivdo]

My dad had four clogged arteries. They ended up doing five all in all. It started as chest pains and took a while to figure out what was going on.

Like you, I took the news pretty hard. Facing the mortality of one of your parents. I was pretty stressed out right until the day of the surgery. He looked pretty rough post op but as others have said, couple days he was up and walking around. A bit sore but manageable. Within the month he was getting bored sitting around the house, wanting to go back to work.

Other than his diet, you wouldnt know any different. Check ups once in a while but he is back on his feet and looking good.

[MoneyGuy]

There is a new medical service (Calgary-based, I think) where they put you through tests to determine your heart-attack risk in, say, five years. I don’t know the accuracy but have their information if anyone wants it.

[dobbles]

My grandfather had triple bypass at age 70 in 2000. He had no significant complications. After initial recovery he was back to normal pretty quick. He passed in the last couple years, but never had any complications in the 15ish years after the bypass. He used to always say that he never had any pain from the upper body operation, just that his leg where they took the veins from would bother him periodically.

I am no help on Calgary specifics unfontunately, just wanted to add to the chorus of folks in saying that it often sounds much worse than it ends up being!

[OutOfTheCube]

My dad had a triple bypass back in 2009 at Foothills. He was just 55, took a heart attack to get him there. They are pros though, and he’s still going today (and has lived a healthier lifestyle ever since too).

One thing I would recommend is getting a reclining chair in her room/on whatever leve she’ll sleep on. My dad said the most difficult/painful part of the recovery was trying to get out of bed, so he spent much of his early recovery sleeping in a La-Z-Boy recliner.

Good luck to your mom, she is in good hands! And I hope everything goes really wel.

[Red Potato Standing By]

I had a quadruple bypass a couple christmases ago( it was in Vancouver though) as they told me, while I was waiting for the surgery with everything floating in my head,is that compared to say 15-20 years ago, it is not as major of surgery as it was back then,the technique and stuff has improved I guess. The one thing I wish someone would of for warned me is to how to properly get out of bed after you first have the surgery. It would of been a lot easier to practice before then after( it seems trivial but when they say you can’t put pressure on your chest they mean it cause it does hurt).

[Red Potato Standing By]

Also sneezing and coughing really sucked as well(and be warned they will make you cough and do breathing exercises right after to open up the lower parts of your lungs) but sneezing sucked as it felt like your chest was going to explode open(even with holding tightly with the pillow)

[LChoy]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Hi all,

Long story short, my mother may require it due to a situation of being clogged up a lot in her arteries and heart failure.

She recently had a heart attack and has other risk factors, what really gets me is that she had all the symptoms and had been to see every specialist and was in constant communication with her medical team about the exact symptoms that lead to her heart attack.

An emergency room Dr was able to diagnose her issue within 15 minutes as heart failure and she is now meeting with a surgical team about the viability of the surgery.

Have any CPer's had this surgery? Who was your surgeon? Your experience with the process at the Foothills hospital, the recovery and everything else?

Thanks so much with any information regarding this. I am worried sick over this as it's my mom, I love her and I want her to come home soon. She's a young women at 64 and there is an entire section of life I want her to be able to experience going forward.

Hi, I wish your mom all the best.
I took a look at the most recent performance measures I have access to for CABG (Bypass surgery) and PCI (angioplasty) procedures and I can confirm that Foothills has good rates for these types of surgeries. Overall in Canada, our cardiac centres all perform reasonably well in terms of mortality, readmission, and other quality metrics despite higher volumes. Foothills is solidly within the Canadian average if not better for these types of procedures

https://www.cihi.ca/en/cardiac-care

Sincerely,

LChoy

[Red Potato Standing By]

After a couple years the scar on my chest is not to noticeable except for a couple spots, the scar on my leg though is still fairly noticeable,but not to bad.

[Dion]

I don't have anything to add other than the best of wishes for your mother. I imagine it's a stressful time both for you and your mother and I hope you can get the answers you need and that the surgery for your mother is a successful one

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by I_H8_Crawford

My dad had a triple bypass a few months ago.

He was lucky - didn't have a heart attack or stroke yet, but had chest pains. They took him in and saw 3 arteries were clogged.

He did the surgery and was sore for a couple days, and is still rehabbing - he still can't lift anything heavy including his grandkid, but hes able to move around better now and can drive.

Looks 1,000,000x more healthy than right before/after the surgery too. Foothills is one of the best cardiac wards in Canada, if not THE best, so your mom should be in good hands.

May I ask who the surgeon was in Calgary and how they were pre and post operation? How is the cardiac rehabilitation going??

Anything you may be able to offer in terms of tips?
Thanks for your response!

[curves2000]

Originally Posted by OutOfTheCube

My dad had a triple bypass back in 2009 at Foothills. He was just 55, took a heart attack to get him there. They are pros though, and he’s still going today (and has lived a healthier lifestyle ever since too).

One thing I would recommend is getting a reclining chair in her room/on whatever leve she’ll sleep on. My dad said the most difficult/painful part of the recovery was trying to get out of bed, so he spent much of his early recovery sleeping in a La-Z-Boy recliner.

Good luck to your mom, she is in good hands! And I hope everything goes really wel.

Thanks for the information! How did his cardiac rehabilitation go?

As for your recommendation for the reclining chair for the room, are you referring to her bedroom at home or a chair for the room in the hospital? Do you think we should bring a chair from home for the room? I am a little confused on that part.

Thanks!

[Red Potato Standing By]

Originally Posted by GoinAllTheWay

My spouses Aunt just had this.

Honestly it sounds pretty scary but seemed really straight forward tbh. She went in for the surgery and was out and back at home within a few days.

If it wasn't for the scars, you wouldn't know she had any kind of surgery. She looked no worse for wear and was out having a walk with us when we visited this past summer.

I was genuinely surprised how quickly she bounced back.

Yeah if there is no complications they do get you out fairly quickly.i know when I had my surgery they said the goal was usually 3-5 days after surgery they want a patient discharged. I was a little longer as my heart wouldn’t slow down so took them a few days to get the medication right.

[OutOfTheCube]

Originally Posted by curves2000

Thanks for the information! How did his cardiac rehabilitation go?

As for your recommendation for the reclining chair for the room, are you referring to her bedroom at home or a chair for the room in the hospital? Do you think we should bring a chair from home for the room? I am a little confused on that part.

Thanks!

Sorry I was meaning for once she's at home. In the hospital they have fancy beds that recline up and down, so no need, but they don't keep you around there any longer than they need to and getting out of bed will still be very difficult/painful for a couple weeks once she's home, even with help.

Rehab was good, my dad followed all their directions and didn't have any complications. He's got a savage scar on his arm as that's where they pulled the arteries from for the bypass though.