Saturday, August 9, 2008

News: ICU

Surgery went well. I went in, talked, blinked, and then woke up (which I won't describe right now -

yeech). I now have an artificial valve implanted in my heart. I can hear it ticking! And I think I can

already feel the increased energy; it's just hiding being chest pain.

I am scheduled to have the pacemaker installed on Monday. They could have implanted it on Friday; I'm

glad they're giving me the weekend to recover first. Normally I would be in the Intensive Care Unit for

one or two days, but since I now have an external pacemaker hanging on a pole next to me, it's better

that greater care be taken. I am breaking records as the healtiest person ever in the ICU.

There is pain, but it is usually managed pretty well. Morphine is lousy; it works fast, but has really

boring hallucinations. Percocet takes a little longer, but works well with no wierd effects.

Thank you all for your support, visits, and prayers.

More later...

- Carl

3 comments:

Mandy said...

So glad to hear from you!!! You most certainly have been in our prayers the past few days constantly!! Keep getting better...

Yes, perocet is your friend...I only have a few left from my c-section... :)

Richard & Mandy et al

Anonymous said...

My name is Monica Stone and i would like to show you my personal experience with Percocet.

I am 35 years old. Have been on Percocet for 7 days now. It did help the pain but the side effects weren't worth it. I'd rather have the pain.

I have experienced some of these side effects-
nausea, very itchy, racing heart, anxiety, flashing lights(almost hallucinogenic?), weird dreams, tiredness

I hope this information will be useful to others,
Monica Stone

Percocet Prescription Medication

ctdonath said...

Thank you Monica for a different perspective. Apparently percocet is not without its issues for some people. I'll recount your symptoms when recommending it to others.

FWIW: post-surgery I frequently experienced "flashing lights" (sorta like moving your eye ever closer to a really well-cut and well-lit diamond). For years this would happen about every 6 months, but post-surgery it was a couple times a day (petering off now, but still happening often). It may be an anesthesia side effect, and has been described as a migrane without the pain.