My PFO closure

This is now what my heart looks like. Come to find out most of my siblings and I have a PFO (Patent Foramen Ovale) or a hole between two chambers of the heart. I am the 6th to have a PFO closure out of the 8 who have been checked. I have one brother who hasn't yet been checked for a PFO. So yesterday we braved the blizzard up to Idaho Falls and Dr. Gorman put the device in at noon. Turns out my hole is about the size of a dime (6-8 mm) and the closure device they used is about the size of a quarter (18 mm). The surgery was complete around 1:00, I woke up from the anesthesia about 2:00, and they wheeled me off to the recovery room. While waking up, I must have asked the nurse, Rhett, about 4 or 5 times "Where's Andrew?" "Who?" He would say because of my slurring. "My husband, where is he?" After about the 5th time Rhett called Andy in the waiting room and told him we would meet him in recovery in about 20 minutes. I stopped asking (that I remember) after that. So we got to the recovery room about 2:30 and the incision sight in my groin started bleeding (Andy says I was still groggy and babbling). The nurse put most of her body weight on it for 15 minutes to stop the bleeding and then our 5 hour count down started.

A few days before the procedure I asked the hospital how soon I would be able to go home after it was all over. They told me, "We'll keep you a couple of hours, just to make sure you can swallow and you're not nausious." I was expecting to be home be 6:00ish. Well, come to find out I had to lay completely horizontal for 5 hours after any bleeding stopped. So our count down started about 3:00 and by 8:00 we were very ready to go home. We called 511 to check the roads and they said it was doable but be careful. Thankgoodness we had the 4 wheel drive and chains. We loaded up and drove home at about 45 mph. The roads weren't too bad, although it had snowed and blowed all day. There were a few scary spots, but we made it! It's not too often that you're in a place where people take such good care of you, wait on you hand and foot, and yet, you just want to get out of there as fast as possible.

Now I can't lift more than 5 pounds for about a week. I just have to take it easy for a bit, then I'm back to my regular routine with Plavix and Aspirin for 6 months. Yep, that means no lifting my boy. Robert is 4 months old and 18 pounds. I can hold him on my lap if someone puts him there. Andy's on double duty for a few days. Overall, I'm glad I did it. I'd much rather pay for a simple surgery than have my family history of strokes, heart atacks, etc come to haunt me and have to go through THAT recovery.