Surgery with diabetes

here’s the story about my shoulder as far as healing - I keep my bs pretty good and I heal about the same as anybody would. I am all better now =)

best of luck and speedy recovery!!!

I had open heart surgery in 2006. First, no I did not have any blockages, the artery’s were as clear as a bell, no leakages, no pacemaker. Nadd nadda none. I even went in with the idea the doc may do a little drano action if needed. Nope.

So what in the world woudl cause open heart surgery on a man who was 48? Oh yeah just a little birth defect. It is called an AV Fiestila, see these are usually corrected when a little guy is like 2, but of course it was not corrected when I was 2, so I got to go under the knife and they opened up my chest after 31 years with diabetes.

So for the question, It was fine. I healed reasonably well, my chest still creeks and moves, but the bailing wire holds it together, well pretty much anyway.

My healing time was about 5 and one half weeks. I was in rehab in three weeks. So you know overall it was fine. I only wish I would have had a better BG plan going in. i mean I got along ok, but I really did nto anticipate how much difficultly it would be holding the BG down that first week home. In the hospital of course they were running the show through the IV for several days and then I took it after about four days.

hey good luck on the foot stuff. My advice, for what it is worth is keep it clean as the doctors advise, do the PT and most important do the soaking or whatever they advise. The issue in the foot even more than the chest is infection. So do as advised.

I have you in my thoughts.

rick phillips
rick phillips

dave sure was, usually the fistula occurs in the kidney or brain. In fact as the diagram shows these fistua’s are often man made, so dialysis can occur. Mine happened to be naturally occurring and in the heart. It caused significant chest pain as the fistua, widened under pressure.robbing the heart muscle of more and more oxygen rich blood. Here is another little explanation.

http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/av-fistula/HQ00263

rick

Hello Taj. I had back surgery January 2008. My lumbar 4 collapsed on top of my lumbar 5 due to an accident. One advantage indeed is good BG control before and after procedure to promote healing and avoid infection. It is such even during the 8 months physical therapy period I went through. I healed pretty quick and was able to walk after 3 months after surgey. There were no complications either.

I had open heart surgery in February, and that is a pretty major procedure. I did have a problem with a wound not healing, however, it was not because of diatetes, but an infection. I am pretty under control, and the hospitals are so use to diabetics now it is no big deal. Hopefully your endo is on staff where you are having your procedure. Then they can keep a good watch on you. Eat right, get plenty of rest, good wound care, and you should be fine!

I’ve had various surgeries while a diabetic (better know as all of them, almost). Th first 1 was at age 5, the almost 1, since I went into DKA coma on the operating table as they took out my healthy appendix. Dumb surgeon…

Healed reasonably well, considering that I wasn’t in any kind of control then. Also had to heal from the tracheotomy they did when I got there because my throat was full of phlegm from what they THOUGHT was strep throat, more likely Coxsackie B or whichever virus kicked off my Type 1 diabetes. Also healed well, but who remembers details 53 years later?

Shortly after that they had to clean out the infection in my arm from a bad IV given during the coma. Heck of a way to learn how to tell which arm was which, my right one had the bandage, then scar after they did a skin graft. Again healed fairly well.

After that I only had stitches on a few small wounds as I was growing up, again no real problems, though my control was markedly better after 1962. Since then I’ve had 2 small foot surgeries, first for a bone spur next to the big toe nail. Part of the toenail was removed, and a pit where he pulled the bone spur out took a long time to fill in, but again no major problems.
A while later I got a small metal cutting in my shoe somehow and it cut into the bottom of my foot. Doctor took it out and it took some time to heal, but now only have a tough bit of skin where it was, that seems to be going away slowly because I put Udderly sMOOth lotion on it to loosen it up.

So anyway healing may be somewhat slower than others would have, but not absolutely. Just be sure to keep it clean and dry as long as instructed, then follow your doctors care instructions until it’s healed. Good control is definitely important, though I sometimes wonder if good genetics helps more than anything else. Family membners seem to live long healthy lives, which may matter as much as anything else.

Teena,
Thank you for sharing. It is wonderful to hear that your surgery was successful and that to day you are doing well with no complications. GREAT!!

Hey Taj…I think it has been said already, but circulation and tissue perfusion are key. I will share my experiences for what it may be worth…we are all just a little different:) I am a T1 of 30 years w/ no major complications. Last year I tripped down some cellar (dark, dank, yikes!) stairs. As a result a small scratch turned into an infection on my lower leg that required antibiotics and opening. Doc said I had great circulation, no neuropathy and that he would expect it to heal “almost” as fast as a non-diabetic…and it did…maybe a week longer. Important to prevent injuries and get treatment ASAP. It really scared me how some of these bugs can take off in a day or two! When they opened the wound to drain it (4 days on heavy duty drugs)…it tested negative for any bacteria…thinking the antibiotics worked:) but, if it had been a weird staph or strep…it may not have.

The reason the doc said “almost” as fast is that there are differences in how white blood cells and macrophages move in on the site to heal in diabetics that is NOT related to circulation. Important to have adequate serum Vit D levels (take MVI/Vit D), good blood sugar control (test, test, test and aggressively keep in tight range) and keep swelling down/circulation good to fight even basic infections. My docs encouraged me to walk a lot to keep circulation to the area …and then elevating the limb to reduce swelling…which is like reduced circulation because the swelling cuts off circulation between cells.

Hope some of this helped:) Be well.

I had all 4 of my wisdom teeth out last year. The only thing that screwed me up was the steroids they gave me to stop the swelling. I was supposed to start taking them the day before and stop if my sugar went up. I only made it to lunch and it was already up. I stopped, but it stayed up through the surgery and after. Just stay away from the steroids…:slight_smile:

i got a new pacemaker for my heart this past may. it was replaced from a one that was put in when i was 6 and im 15 now. ive had diabetes since 2004 and i healed the same way i did when i was younger without diabetes. this surgery was 6 hours and it was supposed to be 2 because they had to put a cathader in my groin to get the rest of the wires out and so i had to do extra healing and it was still fine. :slight_smile:

Ive been T1 for 24 years now (in my early 30s now). Ive had teeth pulled in the hospital due to infection (undiabetes related) and more recently eye surgeries for D. retinopathy. both times I had super high bs (500) the day/night after the surgery, but then back to normal the next day. Its almost like the trauma of surgery shocks my body. I havent noticed any additional healing times or anything unexpected other than that.