The Open Heart Companion: Preparation and Guidance for Open-Heart Surgery Recovery

This book help affirm that my plan is on the right path. Once I get home my hard work will start. My PMA is real good during the day. Not so good at night. I struggle with sleep problems before the anxiety of what is front of me and they have gotten worse as I get closer to the day 9/3/2015 at Mount Sinai. My hope is that I can identify what state my body is in and not to over or under do my activity during recovery. Also to avoid getting things that I have control over. Don't visit if you are sick and wash your hands when you get to the house. The sanitizer is on the counter as you enter the house! I am self employed and work at a desk. I have a full office right across the hall from my bedroom. Rest,work a little, rest is my plan. Not sure if the mental abilities will be good enough, but I plan on trying. Same goes for physical exercise. I plan to do some every day and a little more each day.

I was grateful for this book, and kept it with me the whole time my husband was in the ICU. It was detailed and informative, and had some information in it that the hospital paperwork didn't. Particularly the bits about creating a home team and arranging for friends to visit, the heads up about depression and anger in the wake of the operation - these things were helpful to read about. But I definitely expected my husband to be a kind of invalid following surgery, when in fact he could more or less take care of himself. Better to prepare for the worst and be pleasantly surprised, though. In the end, I recommend this book, taken with a grain of salt.

This book gave me great guidelines and advice to help me through my recovery. I am 2 weeks and 2 days post septal myectomy surgery. I have experienced some of the issues listed and I know that they are only temporary and I can make it through this period in my life and be better off and healthier on the other side of recovery.

I purchased this book when I was informed that my aortic stenosis had progressed to the point that I would need to have a valve replacement operation. I had hoped that the book would provide me with an overview of cardiac surgery options and expectations of outcomes. Instead I found it to be an overblown collection of broad generalities fluffed out with the author's personal accounts of her experience with heart surgery. Apparently her operation did not go well and we follow her (at great length!) through her long convalescence, both physical and psychological. The book has many highlighted recommendations to prepare for the operation and its aftermath. Most of these are overblown and utterly obvious. As an example I quote the four items from the very last page of the book:> Set up a journal in which you can report your progress.> Prepare a calendar to deep track of follow-up appointments.> Line up sources of psychological and spiritual support.> Find the best doctor to advise you during the years ahead.If you find this example to be helpful, then maybe you should buy the book. Otherwise, save your money.BTW: I am 78 years old. I underwent a minimally invasive aortic valve replacement operation three weeks ago. I was walking after one day. One week after surgery I was walking one mile a day and two weeks later, three miles a day. If you are considering cardiac surgery, the most important thing to do is to get a good surgeon. Check out his/her credentials and performance history on the web. Once you decide, the surgeon and his/her team will provide you with all the guidance that you will need.

My 82 year old father had open heart surgery (mitral valve replacement) surgery in January. My family was all so focused on whether or not he would make it through the surgery itself that we forgot to discuss recovery with his doctors and surgeon beforehand. Depression set in during the recovery - a deep, dark depression that I feared he would not come out of. This book really helped, along with a good physical therapy program and some counseling. Dad just wasn't prepared for the long recovery - physically, mentally or emotionally.I bought the book for him because it was written by a woman who had the same type of surgery as my dad. She is not a doctor and I thought that would help him relate to the book and her story maybe a bit more than a book written by a doctor who would have knowledge and wisdom, but no real firsthand experience. I'm really glad I got it for him. There are such great little nuggets of wisdom here. It really helped him to see that his situation was very, very normal, and that there could actually be light at the end of the tunnel!I would highly recommend this little book for anyone preparing for or recovering from open heart surgery. Read it all the way through, take the information she has to give to heart, give yourself time to heal properly and know that you aren't alone in your suffering. This book will give you things to think about and will help you understand that what you're going through is par for the course.

A good book for those who need support channels during recovery. If you have time to prepare for the surgery and understand recovery will require several weeks of downtime then this is a nice but unnecessary resource.

This is filled with good information. After reading it, I was better prepared to ask questions while going through my tests and procedures to verify the need for open heart surgery. Also, I have found: 1). That you cannot give your own blood before surgery. 2). Today the patient is given a lot more instruction about the surgery and able to prepare better 3). You are given someone to contact who actually went through the surgery you will be going through. Now I feel much more at ease to having my open heart surgery.

I did get some information out of this but it didn't completely address my situation. Still I think others might benefit so I gave it a middle rating. I got better information from the internet