5 Things to Prepare You for Heart Surgery

Introduction

Living with a heart condition is quite painful, and that’s a mild statement. Some patients have to live with a cardiac disorder for years, even lifetime in worst cases. Often, heart surgery is required to bring back the heart health status to normal. Living with a heart condition for years is not as frightening as the term heart surgery itself as is to prepare for heart surgery. While some are OK with the idea, for others, heart surgery is quite a big deal. Not only the patient, close friends, and family also suffer from nerves and anxiety. And it is understandable, it is your chest being cracked open!

5 things to prepare you for heart surgery

So, how does one fight this anxiety? Well, there are certain acts recommended by cardiac professionals, which can put one at ease. If one follows these steps before heart surgery, he or she will have their minds at ease.

1- Meeting your saviors

Yes, meeting your heart surgery team before the operation is quite important. Calming nerves is quite important and no one can do it better than your heart surgeon. Everything about your heart surgery will be discussed in a meeting as such this. Family and friends are also a part of such a meeting. The best thing to do in such meetings is to be completely honest. Tell your heart physician all about your medications and blood thinners. This helps the doctors in suggesting and devising, the best possible heart surgery procedure for you.

2- Tests before heart surgery

Certain tests need to be performed before your heart surgery. These help in evaluating the heart health status in a much more efficient manner. These tests are usually ordered by the surgeon who is going to perform your heart strategy. The most commonly recommended tests are:

1- Urine tests

2- Kidney function tests

3- Blood tests

4- Chest X-ray

5- Electrocardiograms

3- Exercises

The nature of these exercises is quite different from the aerobics performed in daily routine. The main aim of these exercises is to train your lungs to get rid of the mucus that might accumulate after heart surgery. These exercises help in accelerating the recovery process, after heart surgery. Usually, these exercises involve a lot of breathing and coughing. For your convenience, a respiratory nurse or respiratory therapist will assist you in doing these exercises properly. You might have to do these exercises for quite a while after your heart surgery. So, it is best to get a hang of these before you enter the operation theater.

4- Quitting smoking

We beg you to stop smoking at once if you smoke regularly. It is criminal for a heart patient to smoke anyways. But it is surgery time and you need to get rid of this damaging habit. Smoking only complicates the heart health status. After heart surgery, it makes the wound healing process quite slow. Smoking also doubles the chances of an infection. The pumping burden simply becomes too much for your heart. This eventually translates into a higher beat rate and blood pressure.

How to Maintain a Healthy Heart

5- Personal care (Prepare for Heart Surgery)

There are certain points of personal care, which are critical to follow before heart surgery. These are as follows.

1- Take a bath with anti-bacterial soap on the evening of your heart surgery.

2- If you are a woman who is a bit of a make-up freak, we have sad news for you. You need to get rid of your cosmetics before you go to the hospital.

3- Ditch any strenuous activities that you might have planned a day before your surgery. Best if you just chill it out and relax.

4- Avoid heavy meals, eat light food.

5- Wear loose, comfortable undergarments.

Conclusion

They say don’t be pushed around by fears in your mind. You can do all of the things we have mentioned above and still might panic. It is fine! Heart surgeries are no joke and one naturally feels anxious if there is one just around the corner. The important thing is to spend more time with your friends and family. Anything which distracts you from the constant anxiety is a great thing to do. But hey, don’t watch a heart-racing thriller that might do more harm than good!

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