The fastest way to recover from open heart surgery is to stay active, walk every day within your limits, get up and move around when you can, get yourself dressed every day, get plenty of rest and eat healthy.
To care for someone after open heart surgery you should keep check on the person's pulse, every day and also have them do breathing exercises.
The heart surgery patient may also need help bathing for a few days or so after the heart surgery or at least have the person wash the incision gently with soap and water and shower.
Encourage the patient after heart surgery to keep up with lifestyle changes and have them move around when they can.
Also if you can participate in doctor visits you should.
After heart surgery you should and have to sit in the back seat for at least 7 days to allow time for healing.
Although you can also sit in the front seat but make sure to put the front seat as far back as possible.
Your chest bone does grow back together after open heart surgery although it takes a few months for the bones to fuse back together.
After the open heart surgery the surgeon will use strong wires to hold the cut bones together as they heal and as the chest bone heals new cells will also grow.
During open heart surgery the lungs are bypassed and hooked up to a heart lung machine which also takes the place of your heart.
Your heart and lungs will be bypassed using a heart and lung machine to keep you breathing and keep your blood pumping through the body.
They don't break your ribs for open heart surgery but the ribs are cut and pulled open to access the heart.
The heart surgeon will make a 6 to 8 inch incision down the center of the chest wall and then they cut your breastbone and open your rib cage to access the heart.
During the open heart surgery you'll be given medicine to thin the blood and keep the blood from clotting.
Memory loss is common after heart surgery although the memory loss after heart surgery is temporary and reversible.
Short term confusion, poor problem solving and information processing and memory loss are common after heart surgery.
The most common complications after open heart surgery are blood loss, memory loss or fuzziness, blood clot, low fever and chest pain, kidney failure or lung failure, irregular heartbeat, stroke or heart attack and chest wound infection.
The cause of a stroke after open heart surgery is atrial fibrillation which causes the heart's smaller chambers to flutter and increase the risk of dangerous blood clots that can dislodge, travel to the brain and then cause a stroke.
After open heart surgery you'll stay in the ICU room for 1 to 3 days while you recover.
The ICU room is an intensive care unit room that is for people who have just had significant surgeries such as open heart surgery.
The complications after open heart surgery are bleeding, stroke, blood clot that breaks loose soon after surgery, kidney problems, memory loss or trouble thinking clearly, infections of the chest wound and irregular heart rhythm.
The reason they leave the chest open after open heart surgery is for low cardiac output.
This is also known as delayed sternal closure after cardiac operations.
Delayed sternal closure (DSC) is defined as delaying the sternal closure either as a principal method or after failure of one or several trials of closure at the end of the operation.
The long term effects after having open heart surgery are blood clots, kidney problems, trouble thinking clearly and memory loss.
Not everyone will experience these issues after open heart surgery but they are some long term effects that can occur to some people after open heart surgery.
Bleeding at the site of surgery or from the incision is the most common complication after having open heart surgery.
The most common complication after open heart surgery is bleeding which usually occurs from the incision or surgery site.
During the open heart surgery and recovery in the hospital you'll be monitored closely and your progress will be tracked.
The ribs are not broken for open heart surgery but the ribs are cut and then moved around and out of the way to gain access to the heart to perform the open heart surgery.
During open heart surgery your heart is worked on inside of your body and not removed.
During open heart surgery you'll be connected to a heart and lung bypass machine or a bypass pump during the open heart surgery.
Your heart is stopped during open heart surgery and while connected to this machine.
The surgeon will open your heart and work on it and then seal it back up and then restart the heart.
The machine you're connected too keeps you alive as it does the work of your heart and lungs while your heart is stopped for the open heart surgery.
Open heart surgery is pretty safe and rarely causes death although it's still a serious surgery.
Open heart surgery is a major operation that requires close monitoring and immediate post-operative support.
It is normal for a person to remain in the intensive care unit (ICU) for a couple of days after the procedure to receive further care.
Healing time after open heart surgery will take at least two to three months.
After the open heart surgery you can expect to have good and bad days during this time and you may feel tired, irritable, anxious, depressed or simply not quite yourself for a few weeks.
Don't be worried if you express your moods and feelings more than before.
The types of heart surgery include.
Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Heart valve repair or replacement.
Insertion of a pacemaker or an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
Maze surgery.
Aneurysm repair.
Heart transplant.
Insertion of a ventricular assist device (VAD) or total artificial heart (TAH).
Generally, open heart surgery is not a painful experience.
One notable exception is the removal of the drainage tubes, which typically occurs on post-operative day one.
It may feel a bit odd and sometimes can be a brief source of pain.
It will feel uncomfortable when you cough, laugh or sneeze.
After having open heart surgery or heart surgery your recovery will begin in the hospital's intensive care unit (ICU) and typically will continue in another area of the hospital for three to five days before you go home.
Once you have been discharged from the hospital, recovery typically takes six weeks or more.
The death rate or mortality rate of open heart surgery is only 2.9% which is pretty low.
Open Heart Surgery has a pretty high successful rate which is 98% so you're very unlikely to die during open heart surgery.
Open Heart Surgery is still pretty dangerous even with advances in medicine and medical technology and the knowledge of today's open heart surgeons who perform the open heart surgery.
Several people have gone through open heart surgery and survived it so it's pretty successful and even babies have had and do have open heart surgery and even then it's pretty successful.