few days. You should call the Cardiothoracic Surgery office if the area becomes red or if the
drainage changes at all.
It is normal to have some swelling on the legs, especially if you have an incision in your leg.
The leg with the incision will tend to swell more. Having your legs elevated to the level of your
heart when sitting will help decrease swelling in your legs.
Sternal precautions:
It is important to hug a pillow to your chest incision when you cough. This will reduce pain and
prevent any tension on your chest incision. This is especially true if you have had a sternotomy-
- this is when your breast bone (sternum) was cut during surgery and then closed with wires.
Women with large breasts should wear a surgical bra or their own bra that does not have an
underwire. Wear a bra to bed or when lying flat. This will prevent pulling and tension on your
chest incision and promote healing. Using bras with front closure are easier to put on. You
should avoid lifting, pushing, or pulling anything heavier than 10 pounds (about a gallon of
milk) for 3 months until the sternum is completely healed.
3. Ambulation and Activities:
It is very important to keep active after open heart
surgery. You should walk daily and perform all your
normal daily activities such as dressing, showering, and
eating meals at the table.
Benefits of being active include:
improved strength of your muscles, decreased emotional
stress, increased endurance, less fatigue, earlier return to
pre-surgery activity level, decreased risk of clot
formation in your legs, and decreased risk of collapse of
the air-sacks in your lungs (atelectasis) or developing a
lung infection (pneumonia).
Try to take 4 to 5 short walks every day and increase the distance gradually every 2-3 days.
Walk at your own pace. Avoid vigorous exercises and do not walk faster than 3 miles per hour
until approved by your doctor. If you feel your pulse rate steadily increasing during exercise,
take a break and sit down.
You can climb stairs. Climb stairs slowly and at your own pace.
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