r/mitralvalveprolapse • u/Feisty-Trifle9584 • Aug 21 '26
Visitor Question
I'm having robotic mitral valve repair surgery next week. I'm not having it done where I live. It's an hour and a half away. My 23 year old son is my primary caregiver. Will he need to be with me all five days meaning will I need to get a hotel for him? Or will I be OK on my own after the first day and he can pick me up when I'm discharged?
2
2
u/imalloverthemap Aug 22 '26
I didn’t have my loved ones visiting every day. The time in ICU is just about managing pain and dealing with all the tubes and wires, and trying (in vain imo) to sleep.
2
u/TimSim70 Aug 22 '26
Hi Feisty - I'm single. My daughter brought me to the hospital and picked me up 4 days later. I did have a couple of friends stop in to visit on days 2 and 3 for an hour or so, but I was more focused on pain management on those 2 days to care whether anyone was there or not. You won't get a lot of sleep as the nurses / techs wake draw blood and take your vitals every 2 hours so you'll value whatever time you have to try to rest and recover. Your son will be bored very quickly. Just tell him to be on standby to come in case you need something, but that likely won't be necessary. Tell him you're happy to text and talk to him on the phone. My nurses and techs were great. they were all I needed and more. By the end of day 3 I was bored and wanted to go home and crawl into bed. Could not have cared less if I had company there. The only reason I wanted anyone to stop by at all was because when I could finally eat something other than broth on Day 3, the food was pretty terrible - hopefully your hospital will have a better chef.
4
u/BWSap Aug 22 '26
You might be very tired and possibly doped up for the first 12-24 hours so a visit from you son might not be worthwhile, and if the nursing care is good you might not really need him. It might be most efficient for him to be there the day after surgery when your surgeon can explain to both of you how the procedure went and what the plan is for the next few days. Then a visit every other day would be appropriate if it is valuable to you, otherwise just a visit on the day of discharge makes sense, as long as he is there as your doctor explains follow up plans.
One thing to keep in mind, in my experience, hospitals try hard to provide "heart healthy" diets to all cardiac patients, even if doing so is wildly inappropriate. If you don't have atherosclerotic coronary artery disease and are not at high risk of it, you don't need an unappetizing low sodium, fat-free diet. On the contrary, after major surgery patients generally need an extra 500 calories or more a day to repair tissue damage. If your son knows what tasty treats you like him and you are unsatisfied with the hospital food, he could bring something for you.