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Been thru heart surgery.

A few random thoughts intended to help:
- Waking up is gonna suck. Bad. Every fiber of your being will want to pull out that breathing tube, and your hands are tied.
- Keep a sense of humor. (First thing on waking, I told my wife “remember this word - fishmonger.” Her telling me that later, something I knew she’d never think of, assured me I had been awake and coherent then.)
- Thank everyone who does anything to/for you. No matter how painful, annoying, distressing, uncomfortable, whatever - thank them, for they have a hard job which is intended to make you better.
- Rib cage pain is bad. That’s the primary pain in heart surgery (assuming they had to split the rib cage and pry it apart with a car jack): pervasive bruising and cut/repaired chest muscles. Hurts. Transitioning from vertical to horizontal or back will make you cry just thinking about it.
- Percocet is a gift. Take it, faithfully, every 3 hours whether you’re in pain or not. Waiting until you’re in pain is too long, and it does take about 15 agonizing minutes to kick in. You just went thru ******* heart surgery, yeah you’re going to hurt, use painkillers.
- Nights in the hospital are hard. You’ll be awake at odd hours, staring at the clock, watching each second tick by for hours on end.
- Netflix on a tablet (iPad) would be a wonderful gift. Stick with mild comedies (”Children of Men” wasn’t such a good choice. Trust me.)
- The ride home is gonna hurt. Just staying vertical in a car uses more muscles than you knew you had, and you’ll be aware of every one of them.
- Once you get home, stop taking painkillers. Pain is a message, listen to it - stop doing whatever is causing you to hurt.
- Once you get home, you’ll do too much. CUT IT OUT. LIE DOWN AND STAY THERE. The pain is telling you to STOP ALREADY.
- I said stop overdoing it.
- No, really, stop overdoing it.
- Yes, walking around slightly hunched and ready to protect your chest is normal. Lasts about a month or so.
- You’ll feel a lot better when you recover.
- Thank God for every minute. You’re living on borrowed time now.