Hello all. A little over 5 years ago I had triple bypass surgery. At that time I was working at a local hospital and when I went back to work following the surgery I was talking to a nurse who asked me if I felt depressed. Surprisingly enough she was right, I did feel depressed, and she proceeded to tell me that anyone who has open heart surgery experiences the emotional trauma similar to a broken heart. I suffered greatly after the surgery and had to stay in the hospital twice as long as most patients due to complications. The entire experience really rocked me to my core. Now it's 5 years later and I'm still not over it. Not only am I severely depressed I have gained about 50 lbs since having the surgery, which isn't a good thing to have when you have a heart condition. So I'm wondering if anyone else who may be reading this that has had open heart surgery is experiencing anything similar? I'd be interested in what you've been going through. Thanks.
I had aortic valve replacement five years ago and had read of depression and memory problems from the gas. It did effect one of the others who had been in intensive care but I'm glad to say it did not have that effect on me. It did though leave me with atrial fibrillation and with other problems so I was in for eleven days rather than five or six. Thought why anyone would be depressed after a life saving operation escapes me. Without it we would not be here now.
Having had depression for so long have you not been offered any therapy for it ?
Nada tão grave quanto uma cirurgia cardíaca aberta, mas tive uma Taquicardia Ventricular progressivamente pior que me fez considerar minha vida vazia, na qual nenhum dos meus sonhos e esperanças jamais se concretizaram, logo terminaria.
Foi apenas duas semanas atrás, após uma corrida de 12 horas de VT que me levou ao hospital, onde fui diagnosticado e ablatado com sucesso, mas agora estou em uma depressão severa, embora outras coisas tenham contribuído para isso.
Marido teve insuficiência cardíaca, causa desconhecida, mas provavelmente um vírus, ele estava trabalhando em águas de inundação contaminadas e teve alguns arranhões nas pernas. duas semanas depois no hospital morrendo. Isso foi há seis anos agora.
Ele ficou deprimido, SIM SIM SIM,
No final, por pura desesperação, consegui fazê-lo concordar em ver um psicólogo, na primeira consulta ele ficou lá com os braços cruzados no peito, mostrou agressividade, franziu a testa, mostrou seu profundo desgosto, ele realmente achava que isso não poderia ajudá-lo, mas ele conseguiu estabelecer uma conexão com a senhora, e a partir daí uma melhora ao longo de semanas de consultas, ainda tem problemas de ansiedade.
Mas eu também aprendi com as sessões, distrair, mudar de assunto, eu tento desafiá-lo, mas há alguns problemas com os quais ele não pode e não vai lidar, então a maior parte do tempo não vamos lá.
Ele acabou odiando o hospital cardíaco, mas insisto que ele vá quando está doente, sem argumentos, não vou ouvir não importa o quanto ele me insulte, ele vai para o hospital e eles salvaram sua vida 4 vezes agora.
Até o consultor Dr. me elogia por como fiquei bom em reconhecer quando uma crise está em andamento, e se eu tivesse minhas qualificações de enfermagem ele me empregaria na hora.
I see your point. Logic says we should be grateful to be alive, but it seems to be beyond my control. I'm sure it's different for each individual, but I've just had a hard time with it. Yes, I have been through therapy time and time again. It helps a little, mostly just getting things off my chest (pardon the pun), which eases the burden somewhat. They don't have all the answers, and believe me I've tried to figure it out for many years. And part of the problem is I tend to feel things more deeply than most people. In other words, things that may just roll off other people's back tend to affect me quite a bit. So I think that is part of the problem. I've learned to live with it, that's all I can do.
You sound like a very strong person, and I applaud you for that. Your husband is lucky to have you in his life. I am not so lucky. I live alone, and have no close family, and no serious "significant other", so no support system at all. That has made it harder to deal with things, but I have adapted and learned in this life to be self supporting. I have also developed a dislike of hospitals and the health care system. I am a retired health care worker of 33 yrs, so I've seen many things.
A couple of days after my open heart surgery I developed Atrial Fibrulation, which they said is not uncommon. Apparently they damaged some nerves during the surgery. My heart rate was about 150/min, ,which made me feel like I was running a marathon. I was short of breath and even just walking to the bathroom was a major chore. They gave me a choice of 2 procedures, one was a cardio-version, which is basically like a defibrulator (electric shock) they use in emergency rooms or EMS squads, or a cardiac ablation, done by using a heart catheter. I chose the ablation because it was more permanent, as they told me the shock procedure results may not last. I had also developed a cough due to throat irritation by the trachea tube they use during surgery, and anyone who has had their chest cut open will tell you that having a cough is excrutiatingly painful. I coughed day and night, and ate cough drops like crazy. Something in the cough drops caused very frequent bathroom visits, which was another unpleasant experience. So I've decided I'm never going to the hospital again. If I survived all that I can survive anything.
It's a hard burden to bear for so long. I knew about the depression bit but nowhere did I read about 30% of patients going into AF after heart surgery.
Ive had 12 heart surgeries, 6 of them open heart surgery.
Not sure about depression but certainly anxiety. I hate anything medical, hospitals, Drs, nurses, injections, evens preists when i was a child because i thought they were surgeons thst were "coming to take me away" apparently!
I had some councilling when i was around 10/11 years old to help with my anxiety but it did very little to help.
I am 9 days post-op of a quadruple bypass. I am having a quick recovery. Everything is coming along great. I do not feel depressed, but I do seem to be more sensitive than before. Twice, once with a news story about a 9 year old girl disappearing and once listening to a man sing a song about his mother who died of breast cancer, I was overwhelmed with sadness. I’m not normally the kind of guy who cries at movies.
It has made you soft hearted :-) I was put into AF.
Hi Gary and all,
I know this is an old thread from last year, but after googling and looking to see if how I am feeling is normal I came across your post. What you wrote last year and how you described how you’re feeling is how I’m feeling right now. So much so I joined so I could write to you.
I had open heart surgery 7 weeks ago to replace my damaged aortic valve with a mechanical one and am now on warfarin for life. Last year I was fit and healthy one minute and the next I was given 3-4 hours to live. I found out later that I had infective endocarditis and spent 6 weeks on antibiotics in hospital.
Between that and what has happened since I feel like my life has been turned upside down, yet it’s only really hit my since my surgery. I am down in the dumps and I actually feel and get quite angry. I don’t find I can explain it properly to anyone and therefore just find myself telling people I’m good, I’m ok, getting there etc when I don’t feel it. I’ve seen a different side to myself and sometimes it has worked to my advantage because I’ve actually stood up for myself which I never used to do but I find myself flying off the handle and my poor mother takes the brunt of it because she is always there for me.
I guess if you’re still on here and happen to see my post I would be very grateful to hear how you are doing and getting on. Has it got any better for you as time has gone on or is everything still the same? Is there anything you have found to help? I know it’s early days for me but I have this feeling I won’t be getting any better soon (I think this will take much longer mentally to get over than physically).
I hope you are keeping well and do feel better as I know this is not a nice way to feel.
Cath
It could be a long term after effect of the anti biotics if you were given Fluoroquinolones.
It is a much discussed topic on Patient UK and has this link to it.
https://patient.info/forums/discuss/fluoroquinolone-toxicity-syndrome-427305
My problems go back to being prescribed them when my aortic valve was replaced six years ago.
With a bit of luck Miriam will notice your post and offer you her expertise.
Hi Derek
Thank you ever so much for your reply and for the link which I will take a look at now.
I’m not sure what it is at the moment but I was warned in hospital that how I am feeling may happen and that it’s normal - I just thought they meant it would be for a few days or so!
I wasn’t on antibiotics very long, a day or two after my surgery at the most but I don’t know what they were called unfortunately. I will try and find out and I’ll bear that in mind.
Thanks again and I hope you’re feeling well now or at least as well as can be.
Cath
The booklet my hospital gave me warned about post operation moods. Personally I was glad it had been done and I could get on with my life. I took several hits from the drugs before they really got to me. A lot of it was possibly triggered by other drugs like Amiodarone and Bisoprolol. At the moment I'm avoiding a steroid injection for my back as it is said to also be a trigger.
The family of drugs are the subject of an investigation by the European Medicines Agency at the moment. The chair persons summing up gives great hope that they will be prohibited for all but life threatening conditions.