Post-Operation Day: Thursday, 3rd October
The first thing I was aware of after the operation was being extubated - not a nice experience, but I wasn't really very aware. My first comments, which nearly came out croaky because of the tube affecting my vocal chords, were "I'm alive" and "Is it Thursday?" Knowing if it wasn't Thursday, there must have been problems and I'd have an extra concerned family. As it happens, everything went smoothly, although my surgeon has since told me I had one of the worst aortic valves he ever operated on.
After that I was mostly asleep, only rousing to urgently apologise for snoring a couple of times and to ask what time it was - 2am and 4am.
First Full Day: Friday, 4th October
Morning in Intensive Care
The next morning started with an X-ray in bed and some of the tubes being removed. I had two in my neck and two in my arm. Over the course of the morning, that reduced to just one in my neck.
I was dragged out of bed and sat up in a chair for breakfast and for a few hours after. The physio came to see me whilst I was sat in the chair and I did the first breathing exercises, which was very painful. The surgeon visited and explained everything went well and I was making good progress, so I would be out of the reanimation (intensive care) ward that day.
At 12:00, lunch was served - fish, of course, being a Friday in a Catholic country.
By 13:00, they had removed the urinary catheter. That wasn't pleasant at all - burny and felt like I was going to need to pee straight away. They said it would feel like a urinary tract infection, something that I have no reference point for.
Moving to Intermediate Care
From 13:00, I was in intermediate care. Lots of monitoring going on, so quite hectic and noisy. I was overall in a much better state than I imagined I would be and had my first visitor. We did similar breathing exercises with the physio in the afternoon.
However, through the afternoon and evening the pain gradually increased. The pain I needed the extra medication for was mainly brought on by trying to breathe - quite a scary sensation as my breaths got shorter and shorter to avoid the pain, mainly around the chest drainage site. I buzzed the nurses for more pain relief, and it took two shots, but they made me comfortable and I slept well today, apart from the hourly blood pressure checks which startled me every time.