Pericarditis & Pericardiectomy- CLOSED THREAD

Hi Karrie, Can only tell you what my husband was told. His cardiologist said that the more he tried to excercise etc the more strain he was putting on his heart that was already struggling. That in turn would impact on his liver. He said don't be an inva;lide but take it steady. He said it was a balancing act between having it done early enough so he was still in good health but not too soon because of the risk. Now my husband was v. active and couldn't cope with being short of breath, tired, fluid retention and the effect of the diuretics so he opted for the op sooner rather than later. His surgeon said 'I'm not God I can't give guarantees but I am confident you will be OK as you are healthy otherwise. It is a balancing act and it is scarey, left to me I would be pushing him in a wheelchair now! I think though this site shows you that modern medicine has moved on so much you can expect to be OK. Good luck.

Hi, I haven,t got lupus but I have had autoimmune disease in the past affecting my thyroid and my kidneys. I also had an autoimmune reaction to the pericarditis last year which has caused the constrictive pericarditis. I am opting for the surgery now before my symptoms get any worse. I don't know if your recovery will be more difficult or not because of lupus.

Spangles x

boy that sounds like lupus.where are you having your surgery done? was it a difficult decision? my husband doesn't want me to have it because of the grim statistics my cardiologist gave us. but i keep reading how important it is to have the surgery earlier rather than later. good luck to you. it's great to have people to talk to that are in the same boat.

Hi Spangles, We are up in North too! Newcastle is a lovely town and such friendly people. Will be nice to be cared for there! Will be thinking of you on the 8th. Don't expect to remember too much yourself. My husband can't! He lived with his arms wrapped around a pillow for weeks afterwards. He advises lots of fruit from the start so you don't get constipated as that caused such chest pain surprisingly. Chin up soon be done XXX

Hello Spangle & Karrie,

 Well it appears my good friend Sherwood is still tending to people who need help. She coached me through My procedure almost 2 years back & I have never felt better & I hope you 2 find your life back to normal as I have. The procedure for a good Heart Surgeon was described by my Surgeon as Surgery 101 since it is so common in repeat open heart patients anyway. I am not making light of it as I canceled my procedure twice until Sherwood convinced me to go ahead. You will be in good hands & mine was done without the Heart machine for the 1st part & for the Maze procedure they had to put me on which was not a big deal from what they told me. I was out in 6 days & was feeling awesome about 10-12 weeks after & jogging again shortly after that. My wife who was battling Cancer at the same time pleaded with me not to but I went ahead, It was the best decision I have ever made & having my life back was worth every minute of what I went through.

 Sherwood , you are still the greatest!!  I will pray for Karrie & Spangle & try to stay in better touch with the forum,

         God Bless you, Boog

          

Hi Spangles, Hi Karrie and Boog ,  Spangles I am thinking of you this week and dying to get your post-op post. You have to try and match my husband and Boog and be ready for home on day 6-but if you're wise stay another day or two. I remember the first two or three nights waking up every hour to help my husband into a more comfy position. In hospital he just pressed a button and the bed head rose up or down. Here it was me and pillows half asleep trying to be sweet and patient. Karrie I can so sympathise with your husband as I SO didn't want mine to have it done until it was absolutely no choice but it was the right thing for him to do. Better now than when that precious baby is here and you are too sore to hold it for weeks. Maybe by August you won't be racing round doing your job, housework and your daughter's house and cooking too but you will be able to walk the babe while she rests and love it and tell it with certaintity all the fun things you will do together one day. A lot of the figures they quote re mortality are from years ago and some people will have constrictive pericarditis after cancer treatment or TB maybe previous heart surgery. I only have to close my eyes and I can feel that bleak terror again. Be brave. So many of us are wishing on a star for you. XXX

sherwood, your kind words brought tears to my eyes. thank you so much. i so want to believe that this can be fixed. i know the lupus will still be there but maybe if i slow down and manage myself better i can stay healthy. my kids are 22 and 25 but need their mom. mine is 75 and lives with us and today i told her i still need a mommy and she was there for me in a big way. thank god for freinds and family, and you kind people.

HELLO EVERYONE I'M BACK. Well the past week has certainly been eventful, but Im home on paracetamol only for pain !! I have a bit of a temperature so I have to get my blood count repeated on Monday at the GPs at the same time as I get the drain site sutures out. VERY tired and looking forward to a good night sleep in my own bed. Thanks for all your support. Ill check back in tomorrow
Spangle

Hi sherwood it's good to be back. I didn't need a bipass as I didn't have any blockages on angiogram. The only thing that is worrying me now is that I still feel feverish and generally flu like but i'll get my GP to ring the Freeman on monday for swab results incase they think it is an infection. The cardiologist who treated me last year came to see me while I was in and stopped the colchicine, an antiinflammitory used in pericarditis, he said that I shouldnt need it anymore but could take it if I wanted to. So just in case I am having an autoimmume reaction to coming off the colchicine Ive started back on it today. I suppose it could just be an inflammitory response to the surgery but im covering all angles with this I cant afford not to as It could cause further damage.

Love Spangle

Hi els, I'm glad to see you are still here. I'm also glad to see this forum is still going strong. It has helped me in the past so much. I miss coming here and chatting with everyone. I would like to see some of the familiar people come back here, I really miss them. I hope you are doing well. Keep up the good work, you have helped alot of people here. Take Care and God Bless!


Wanda

Thanks Sherwood and Boog. Boog I was glad to here that you also had to take colchicine for a while after sugery and that things eventually settled down. The doctors are at a bit of a loss as to why I still have a raised white cell count and temp. I've changed from amiodarone to verapamil today and I'm hoping that will help as ami can cause fever,I needed it in hospital for atrial fibrillation on the second post-op day. You are definitely right about the huge shock to the system Sherwood although despite everything I still have a good appetite.

Thanks you guys your contiuing support means so much.

Spangle

Hello All,

I too am extremely happy to have found this forum.  On Friday, my 49 yr old husband was diagnosed with constrictive pericarditis.  I'll give just a brief history.  In April 2008 he went to the emergency room after being short of breath.  He was diagnosed with AFIB.  He had a cardioversion in May 2008 and July 2008, a cardiac ablation in September 2008, another cardioversion in October 2008, and a second cardiac ablation in December 2008.  Obviously all of these procedures did not cure his AFIB.  On March 4, 2009 he ended up back in the Emergency Room with shortness of breath, we were assuming it was related to the AFIB.  It was found that he had a large pleual effusion.  His right lung was tapped (2350 cc of fluid was drained) and he was cardioverted once again and then sent home.  On 4/9/09 he was again found to have a large pleural effusion, this time they drained 2300 cc of fluid from his right lung and he ended up in respiratory distress and has left sided pnuemonia.  He was not responding to the antbiotics so a Infectious Disease specialist was brought in and diagnosed him with Acute Interstitial Pneumonia.  He was taken off the antibiotics and put on steroids, which seemed to work.  Again on May 9, 2009 his lung had filled up again, and had to be tapped, taking 2500cc of fluid.  Now, on May 19th, a CT Scan of his abdomen (being done for a completely different reason) revealed that he again (10 days later!) had a very large plueral effusion.  He was short of breath, had pitting edema in his lower extremeities and aceties in in abdomen.  He was told by his pulmonologist to go to the ER again.  This time 2700cc of fluid was tapped from his lung. 

Ever since his first pulmonary effusion the cardiologist and pulmonologist could not agree.  Pulmonary was saying it was cardiology related and that my husband had to be in heart failure, and the cardiologist insisted that there were no signs of heart failure.  Finally on Thursday the cardiologist decided to go ahead and do a cardiac cath "just to prove pulmonary wrong".  Well the cardiologist is eating crow right now because the cardiac cath indicated contrictive pericarditis.  We were told he would need a pericardiectomy.  The sooner the better because the pleural effusions will continue until he has the surgery. 

Sorry this is so long, but I thought the details would be helpful.  Now we are looking for a surgeon who has done many of these procedures with success.  We live in Florida, and have already been told we will probably need to go out of state, and that's okay, we just want the best.  Any suggestions from anyone would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks