Open heart surgery

I don’t think the Doctor told my husband that. I will tell him!!
Thanks so much!
God Bless,
Retha

I'm sorry that your father had to deal with that pain. Medicine is improving; I think that sometimes, these conditions can be handled in a more noninvasive manner, but not always. Both of my parents had sternotomies for bypass in their late 70s or early 80s, and both recovered without any lingering pain. They both lived relatively healthy lives into their mid-90s.

Most doctors treat only with meds and treatments and surgery not how to prevent or alleviate naturally. I have gotten rid of many health problems naturally.

You’re right!!

I had open heart surgery at Mayo Rochester in June and am struggling with depression.My guess from other threads in this discussion group is that many of us who have had major surgery have experienced / are experiencing depression as a result. I would very much like to hear how long your depression lasted / is lasting and what treatments have been effective. I found a very helpful Psychology Today article (link below) that outlines likely causes and which helped me understand this better.My story: The radiation treatments that cured me of Hodgkin Lymphoma in 1982 nuked a whole lot of things that don't respond well to radiation, resulting in damage to my thyroid, lungs, heart, and kidneys, among other things. The heart damage was the worst; in June I needed my mitral and aortic valves replaced plus one bypass. The surgery went quite well, but the recovery is taking far longer than I expected.I was experiencing minor depression over the past few years and successfully treated it with Vilazadone, an SSRI that my psychiatrist turned to when my body out-smarted numerous first-line SSRIs. I've been taking Vilazadone for 5 or so years. And I have a psychotherapist I talk with regularly. These steps were sufficient to manage the depression prior to surgery. But in the last six months, and especially the last two months, that treatment regimen has not kept up with the depression. I carry far too many unhappy memories from the last six months; my body has been through a very traumatic surgery; my stamina and strength are returning, but very slowly; I am unable to do many of the things that brought me pleasure. I feel very uncomfortable in my chest and abdomen, presumably from depression. It's amazing how something in our brains can cause physical symptoms!I hope that as I continue to recover the depression symptoms will ease, and that six months or a year from now I'll feel much more like I did prior to surgery, especially with help from my therapist and from medications. Of course I have no idea if that will be the case. I would be thrilled to hear others say that they took had post-surgery depression and that it lifted after a year or so.Here's the article on post-surgery depression: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/two-takes-on-depression/202210/what-everyone-should-know-about-post-surgical-depression