Personal Narrative: My First Experience At Heart Surgery

Why? Well, I personally have a heart condition. I was born with left Valve Stenosis witch means my heart has to work harder to pump blood though the valve and my body can suffer with less oxogen. With having this condition I do have chest pains, more then anyone has. The wild part is I can not take birth control because there is a lot of effects within the heart. I’ve had an inhaler many times to help with my breathing and multiple open heart surgeries. With my condition there are many things in this world I am not able to do, such as I have to be a certain weight. As for me I can’t weaigh over 120 pounds, I can’t go on roller costers, I can’t have too much salt, and I’m very limited on working out and I can’t skip meals and being stress is not great for my heart.

The surgery I had was a pretty major surgery some could say, four though six hours and it's compared as open heart surgery. It wasn't the surgical pain though that caused me to stay there longer then i was supposed to no, it was some kind of nerve pain that even the doctors and nurses had know idea what to do. My case was so uncommon they sent me into ICU after fives days of being in pain two hours three times a day. Not knowing what to do the nurses would just shoot me up with a bunch of drugs just to calm down the pain and all I could do was watch as this was all happening while gasping for air.

In the autumn of 2013 my beloved grandmother suffered from many medical complications. After discovering esophageal cancer, surgery to remove it caused a tear in her esophagus, which led to numerous health hazards. As a result, the cancer spread throughout my grandmother’s bloodstream and it was impossible to maintain her health. By October of the same year, she fought to maintain her optimistic personality that I admired so dearly as a child. There was nothing more the doctor’s could do and while she wasn’t able to speak clearly, she understood the circumstances completely. As my mother asked her if she was ready to rest she pointed up to the heavens with her eyes closed. As we said our goodbyes she was given morphine until she was no longer with us. To force my grandmother to suffer and endlessly wait for healing would have been selfish of us. It is hard for those of us who are healthy to consider death as a logical option in crucial situations. While it is a difficult concept to grasp, in certain circumstances it is the better

I peek through the door to say goodbye to my grandma as I was on my way to cheer practice. As I observed her through the window I see her prepping her insulin, she lets out a small “ouch” as she inserts the needle. I watch her unable to help, I walk in give her hugs and kisses and run out to make it on time for cheer practice. I would practice on average five hours a day seven days a week since the age of three. Dedicated and passionate about cheer I thought I would never let it go. When I wasn’t spending time with my grandma trying to assist her or I was studying deeply to get into a good medical program, I was at cheer practice. While in the midst of studying and cheer, my grandma got really sick, I watched her helplessly depart. I wasn’t

“At first I didn’t think it was that serious, I thought the BB pellet had just irritated my eye,” Matthew said.

Katlynn was out of the hospital after about a week and a half. All of us girls cleaned the house spotless upon her arrival. That may not sound like much, but we were young girls that lived on a farm, so being messy was pretty much our thing. Katlynn came home and we all showered her with hugs. The first week she was home we watched her like a hawk, trying not to make it noticeable. Since Kate got out of the hospital she has to take pills every morning and night, and she had to make a trip to Mason city twice a year. Today she only goes once a year because she hasn’t suffered a seizure since. There have been a few scares here and there, though. It’s been seven and a half years since that terrible day, and Kate’s doing great. She is at the age

Sept 10 & Sept 17 Sept 24th: On the 10th, it was orientation day because it was the first day for clinical. Gretta took us around BMC. It was nice to walk around and see each floor. We go our picture taken for our ID. On the 17th and 24th, we were not allowed to be on the floor yet because our ID was not ready.

It was a hot Spring day in the middle of a soccer game of my Freshman year. I felt that pain that impacted my life forever. It changed my outlook on life and made me realize how truly lucky I am. I came home that evening and complained to my Mother how bad my chest was hurting. She told me it was most likely indigestion or something I had ate earlier that day. Her being the educated nurse that She is, I believed her and went on about my night. Soccer season continued and the pain was still there but only when I ran. I didn’t think much of it and ignored it. Soccer season ended and I had never felt the pain again. That was until later that year, I walked from my class to the office. I could feel them again. I told

My first clinical I felt my greatest accomplishment was not being shy and hesitant. The first day we had clinical was the first day that I got the opportunity to float to another floor, I was very nervous at first. Going into a new place for anyone is different at first because you don’t know what to expect. I think what made my experience so great was the endoscopy nurses and doctors, they were some of the nicest and helpful people I’ve met so far. I got a wonderful opportunity to learn next to the doctors doing the procedures and also see other roles of the healthcare team like the nurse anesthesiologist.

Have you ever had a strange feeling you shouldn't do something? I have, but nothing will compare to the time I had a feeling my mom shouldn’t do something. At 21 years old, my mom was in a terrible car accident, nearly leaving her without a foot. As a result, plates and screws were placed in her ankle; causing a lifetime of obstacles and an unimaginable deal of pain. As you finsish reading, you will understand why you should always trust your instinct.

On March 21th 2017 I had went to the hospital for very bad stomach pains that has been happening for 2 years now. No doctor have figured out what was wrong with me. So that day when I got to the hospital they did a whole lot of testing on me. They had kept me overnight to do more testing the next day. So on March 22nd 2017, They had found out from the testing that my intestines were twisted and needed surgery. On March 24th 2017 I had my very first surgery. I was so scared since it was my first surgery and of course my first one had to be an emergency surgery. When the doctors came in to tell me to say goodbyes because I was about to go back, my heart just started to race because I was scared that something was gonna happen to me and I

We have all heard the phrase “back to the basics.” Perhaps the role of the foundations is undermined amidst the complexity that builds over those foundations. Nevertheless, the foundations are dramatically consequential and integral to any complex system that exists. Just as neural communication boils down to something as simple as the firing of a neuron, my passion for medicine boils down to the elementary: dire interest, especially in the human brain.

As Friday was my first day starting my experience at the cardiac catheterization lab, I was quite nervous and curious about the different things that I would have to do considering in all my time volunteering at the hospital, I have been to the cath lab only one or two times. However, when I went to the lab I was warmly welcomed by some of the staff and I later met many of the nurses and doctors there as well. Everyone was very friendly and they were excited to have my help and to “train me.” In fact, one of the doctors I met wanted me to do some research regarding cardiac catheterization to “get me more involved in the field,” which is pretty exciting because I'm not very familiar with anything related to cardiology but I chose this specific

I could feel the smoldering hot sun on my shoulders as I approached the long jump runway. It was my third and final jump for trials, the deciding factor on whether I made it to the finals. I closed my eyes, took a deep breath, and took off! As I sprung off the board, I knew it was going to be a great jump. Suddenly, I landed and sensed an unbearable pain filled with screaming agony as I rolled in the sand. It was perhaps the most catastrophic and painful athletic injury I have ever experienced. As I looked up, things seemed to be moving in slow motion as my coach came running in. I received the most shocking news two days later that I had ruptured my ACL. Although I did not know it at the moment, this injury was going to have the greatest impact on my life that anything ever has.

This was my second day with the patient. At this point I felt we had a good rapport with one another. I sensed that she had trusted in me and felt comfortable. The expressed to me that they had 10/10 pain in her abdomen and that the morphine PCA worked for their pain until the staples were removed from their incision site.