First and foremost. You need to be prepared for a distinct lack of energy. It’s those old D-Size batteries that have been laying around for 2 decades. They may have power, but that bunny, is just a bunny, not the Energizer bunny. Energy becomes the most fleeting resource post-surgery. You are going to take 10 steps, hopefully forward, when you get home. Not only will you be winded and tired, you find yourself in some Black Mirror or Twilight Zone episode, where you have to sit down and take 5 minutes to recover from that 10 second walk. This will be a struggle throughout recovery. The best thing that you can do when you get home is to walk around, even if it's your own house. Just walk to the end of the driveway, come back in, go to the end of the block, come back, extend that, walk as much as you can. Don't do it alone. It'll occur to you pretty darn quick that you can't do anything by yourself. You need your significant other. In my case, my bride the Love Goddess. She made sure that I got around and kept me moving. The energy, or fleeting energy is by far the hardest thing to manage. In the first 4 weeks, friends and family will want to visit you. Tell them they will have roughly a 20-minute window until you start to fade out. Energy just fades like the last episode of the Sopranos, just fade to black in the middle of a conversation. Only without the hitmen. It's the craziest thing. You will not be able to predict when energy decides to leave you. It may decide to run away after an hour. It may decide to evaporate within 5 minutes of having breakfast. This was the biggest adjustment to manage post-surgery. The unpredictability makes managing a day very challenging.
#02 Sleep:
The next thing that you need to deal with is sleep. Sounds obvious, except that you just had your chest ripped open like the scene in Aliens, then the doctor pulled your heart out, just like Mola Ram in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, took body parts from the Isle of Dr. Moreau, and then you were 
stitched back together with stainless steel thread. Sure you can't sleep like you normally do. First, you need to be propped up. If you have an articulating bed, one that is well-spoken and of good breeding, like the Stryker hospital bed, wait, that’s an articulate bed, you can prop it up. Another approach is the reclining Lazy-boy chair, or the ever favorite adjustable Barco lounger. Regardless of the sleeping apparatus, adjusting is still going to take time. You are going to need sleep! Of course it won't come when you want it. You may even want to resist napping, fearing you may upset your Circadian Sleep Cycle so you can get more sleep. Take the damn nap whenever you can. Your body is in ultra heal mode, the nap lets the body do its thing. This is how your body tells you, “hey, you need to sleep. Like right now.” Just go with the flow. Don't question it, don't fight it. Just get the rest period. You've just had your chest ripped open, your guts played with, and your entire body paralyzed by anesthesia. It needs time to get better.
stitched back together with stainless steel thread. Sure you can't sleep like you normally do. First, you need to be propped up. If you have an articulating bed, one that is well-spoken and of good breeding, like the Stryker hospital bed, wait, that’s an articulate bed, you can prop it up. Another approach is the reclining Lazy-boy chair, or the ever favorite adjustable Barco lounger. Regardless of the sleeping apparatus, adjusting is still going to take time. You are going to need sleep! Of course it won't come when you want it. You may even want to resist napping, fearing you may upset your Circadian Sleep Cycle so you can get more sleep. Take the damn nap whenever you can. Your body is in ultra heal mode, the nap lets the body do its thing. This is how your body tells you, “hey, you need to sleep. Like right now.” Just go with the flow. Don't question it, don't fight it. Just get the rest period. You've just had your chest ripped open, your guts played with, and your entire body paralyzed by anesthesia. It needs time to get better.
#03 Alertness:
Your alertness levels are extremely low. I couldn't understand why they didn't want me to drive a car. Then the Love Goddess took me for a ride just because I had to get out. Suddenly I realized that the road went by real, real, fast. Everything was a blur. Again, driving is a new sensation for you. It is going to take at least six weeks before you can drive. You have lost basic situational awareness skills. 
Your body still is figuring out what the hell you just did to it. The key is two-fold; 1) Make sure that you’ve got somebody with you. 2) Start slow, Drive around the block a couple times. I drove to my office, and I took the back roads. After that I took a longer drive. After about 5 weeks of recovery, I had two wakes and funerals that I wanted to attend. One funeral was in Champaign, IL. a 2 1/2-hour drive to the funeral and a 2 1/2 hour drive back. Could I have made the drive there and back? Candidly, it's questionable whether I could have made the drive there, no less come home. I did go to the other wake about a mile from home. I lasted for part it. Then I had to get home because I started getting tired. Didn't make it to the funeral for that one either. Emotions: A surprise to me is that emotions are something else you have to manage. You're going to go through a whole lot of different emotions. When I was released from the hospital, I cried. I’m man enough to admit to that. I was just so happy to be coming home alive and with the Love Goddess. Then I thought about my close friend Fr Stacey, who died of an unknown/undiagnosed heart issue. If he would have had the stress test was all I could think about. Then, somewhere in the recovery process, I got hurled a curve ball. It’s a blue funk, not a purple rain. More like a depression. You will be dealing with this frequently it’s not just the body that is healing, but so is your psyche, and brain. I should note, I have a boss, King Jeffrey, who looked out after me. If I still owned my own business, or King Jeffrey abandoned me, I would have stressed totally about what happens next, how do I find a job, how do I service my clients, how do I service my wife, etc.? That was removed.
Your body still is figuring out what the hell you just did to it. The key is two-fold; 1) Make sure that you’ve got somebody with you. 2) Start slow, Drive around the block a couple times. I drove to my office, and I took the back roads. After that I took a longer drive. After about 5 weeks of recovery, I had two wakes and funerals that I wanted to attend. One funeral was in Champaign, IL. a 2 1/2-hour drive to the funeral and a 2 1/2 hour drive back. Could I have made the drive there and back? Candidly, it's questionable whether I could have made the drive there, no less come home. I did go to the other wake about a mile from home. I lasted for part it. Then I had to get home because I started getting tired. Didn't make it to the funeral for that one either. Emotions: A surprise to me is that emotions are something else you have to manage. You're going to go through a whole lot of different emotions. When I was released from the hospital, I cried. I’m man enough to admit to that. I was just so happy to be coming home alive and with the Love Goddess. Then I thought about my close friend Fr Stacey, who died of an unknown/undiagnosed heart issue. If he would have had the stress test was all I could think about. Then, somewhere in the recovery process, I got hurled a curve ball. It’s a blue funk, not a purple rain. More like a depression. You will be dealing with this frequently it’s not just the body that is healing, but so is your psyche, and brain. I should note, I have a boss, King Jeffrey, who looked out after me. If I still owned my own business, or King Jeffrey abandoned me, I would have stressed totally about what happens next, how do I find a job, how do I service my clients, how do I service my wife, etc.? That was removed.
# 04 Routine:
Trying to find a routine is difficult. Why? Because everything is new, right? You can't drive a car right away. You have to go to cardiac rehab to slowly build up your stamina. And even when your stamina is getting built back up, you're nowhere near 100%. Going through all these things, your brain is just all over the place. It’s hard to focus, my advice is to set simple goals and build. It will happen at your pace. It’s impossible to rush this, just like the Blackhawks rebuild.
#05 Chest Pain:
that killed Michael Jackson (that was not a Thriller), and pinned back your shoulders so far they could almost touch. Kalii Ma from Indiana Jones doing your surgery without the whiny kid who almost ruined the whole movie.
#06 The body is amazing!
It repairs itself, but takes a long time. You have no control over that yet you're feeling this pain and they just worked on your chest and you're freaking about every little thing. Justifiably so! When you come home, the hospital gives you a pillow to put on your chest. You're like “ohh, that's kind of goofy”. Quickly you learn, that little pillow killed a lot of pain. If you laugh, or sneeze, the pain is pretty big. All these questions and things happening are new. You've never experienced these things before. Breathe, otherwise you're just going to get more depressed. Trying to get back to work, and do everything that you were doing before is only going to lead to exhaustion. I can flat out tell you that it took me a full 12 months to get back to normal. The nice thing is, I had some friends that went through the same thing, we compared notes, and believe me, that shared information was helpful. If you're reading this and you ever need to talk, find me and we'll talk.
#07 Well Meaning Dipshit Thoughts: No, I don’t feel better 5 days after surgery
#08 Lifestyle Changes:
No frickin’ way do you want to do this again. You may have had a top notch team like me, but you never want to see them again. Change your diet! Make sure you go to a low sodium diet. Cut down on your caffeine, like two cups daily. Focus on eating better. I still can’t believe my dad had Kentucky Fried chicken after they put his stents in. Mom was like “Chicken is good for you!” Get active. You need a workout right? You can't work out like you did before. That adjustment is touch but cardiac rehab is such a big help. Walking or biking is easy. The bottom line is you gotta do something. Not doing anything is a recipe for going back. No Cigar Smoking! This hurt the most, by the way. I had to stop cigar smoking Now the doctor did tell me that I could have like a cigar once a quarter. I see that as a total 4 times a year. Which is cool, but the bottom line is is that I enjoy the social aspects of cigar smoking just as much as I enjoy a cigar. Probably more. For me, it meant giving up a social part of my life that I really enjoy, the people at the cigar bar where I would hang out on occasion. I don't get to see them anymore. I can’t hang out there, the second hand smoke is just as bad as if I'm smoking. I want to live, that's been a big change. I can’t even just go in the backyard and light up.
#09 Communicate With Your Partner:
Making sure that you communicate with your significant other, and family. One of the things that happens after the surgery is that you get a sense of urgency to everything. The doctors and nurses were quick to say that they've added 25 years to my life. That's awesome and I am thankful. Then I realize that that 25 years is starting today. In fact, I'm down to 24 years now. There's things that I want to do that if I don't do, in the next 5 to 10 years, I'll never get to do them. So. I'm figuring out how to do these things and planning out what I wanna do. Now the problem is your spouse, or significant other is not at the same place. Which means you're given a choice. Either you slow down and wait for her or him. Come to an understanding of what the pace needs to be. The alternative is that you leave. In the first blog that my mom used to talk about how men would leave their spouses after they had open heart surgery. I totally get it now, if I didn't love my wife and if I didn't wanna be with her. Even if there was a question. Then. I can see how easily it would be. To walk. I'm not justifying the men that do that. Everybody has their own decisions to make. I can tell you that the sense of urgency and knowing your mortality is right in front of you changes your perspective on everything.
#10 Centering Your Life:
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Hence, centering your life is really important. More prayer, more meditation, more both. It's getting a handle on everything that is going on around you. In managing it in a way that you can figure out. When I was working at United Airlines, I worked with a woman named Barb. And Barb would say. If we don't get this done today, planes will not fall out of the sky. I gotta say, that's one of those things that stayed with me for a very long time. If you're feeling rushed, or different, or whatever. Manage it, because a plane is not gonna fall out of the sky. (Unless you are pilot). You can wait and things will work out. I'm still navigating new waters and trying to figure everything out. All these new sensations, clarity and morality sword of Damocles hanging over my head all combine for a next chapter, make sure you write it!
