Nobody hands you a packing list for open heart surgery. This is mine.
None of this is fancy and none of it is medical. It's the stuff that made the first month at home easier, sorted by when you'll want it. If you can, get the "before surgery" items lined up ahead of time. You will not feel like shopping afterward.
Your hospital may give you some of these (mine sent me home with a spirometer). Ask before you buy.
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Before surgeryA firm cough pillow
The single best tip in the guide. Brace it hard against your chest before every cough, sneeze or laugh. A heart-shaped sternum pillow is made for exactly this, but any firm pillow you can grip with both hands works.
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Before surgeryA wedge pillow
You will not be able to lie flat for a while, and you can't push yourself up with your arms. A wedge keeps you propped without a stack of pillows sliding around at 3 a.m.
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Before surgeryA shower chair
A sit-down shower became my favourite thing in the world. Fifteen minutes to sit, get clean, breathe and take stock. Standing that long in week one is not happening.
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Before surgeryShirts that button or zip in front
For the first few weeks you can't raise your arms over your head. A couple of button-front shirts and a zip hoodie mean you can get dressed without help or pain.
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Before surgerySlip-on shoes
Bending over to tie laces is off the table. Slip-ons let you get out the door for the walks that are doing the actual healing.
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Before surgeryA reacher / grabber tool
No bending, no lifting, no twisting. The grabber picks up the thing you dropped without breaking the sternal rules.
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First month homeA bathroom scale
Sudden weight gain of a few pounds in a day or two can mean fluid, and that's a call-the-doctor sign. Weigh yourself every morning and write it down.
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First month homeA home blood pressure monitor
You'll be on new medications and your care team will want numbers. A cuff you can use at the kitchen table takes the guesswork out.
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First month homeA weekly pill organizer
Four new medications, twice a day, in a brain that's still foggy. This is how you stop asking yourself whether you already took them.
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First month homeCompression socks
If they harvested a vein from your leg, it swells. Light compression socks made the walks more comfortable and the evenings less puffy.
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First month homeIce packs and a heating pad
The soreness isn't only the incision. It's the trauma of the surgery itself, plus the way you have to sleep while the breastbone heals, which leaves muscles aching in places you didn't expect. Ice on the chest plate or wherever it's sore, heat on the muscles. Having both within reach of the bed made the nights easier.
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First month homeA small space heater or an electric blanket
My body temperature was all over the place for weeks. Whether it was the healing or the new medications or both, I'd go from fine to chilled in minutes. A little heater by the chair, or an electric blanket, takes the chill off fast without heating the whole house.
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