Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After - Life After
CABG is a treatment but not a cure for ischemic heart disease. It is important to work with your doctor after CABG to help you stay healthy. This may include taking medicines prescribed by your doctor, making healthy lifestyle changes, getting regular medical checkups, and participating in cardiac rehabilitation.
Take your medicines as directed
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
Your doctor will likely discuss medicines with you shortly after your surgery. Some of them are important to start right away. You may need to take them for up to one year or even continuously throughout your life. These medicines may include:
- Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors to treat high blood pressure, and for people who have had a heart attack, have diabetes or kidney disease, or whose heart does not pump properly.
- Angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) to treat high blood pressure and for people who have had a heart attack or have diabetes or kidney disease. Your doctor may recommend an ARB if you cannot take an ACE inhibitor or for other reasons.
- Beta blockers to decrease the chance of irregular heart rhythms after CABG, as well as to treat high blood pressure and other heart conditions. These medicines slow your heart rate and lower your blood pressure to decrease the amount of stress on your heart.
- Blood thinners, or anti-platelet medicines, to keep your graft from developing a blockage and help prevent blood clots. One type is aspirin. Your doctor will likely start you on aspirin right away, even before you get CABG surgery. Your doctor may prescribe other types of anti-clotting medicines, such as clopidogrel. Possible side effects of this medicine can include bleeding, especially if you are taking other medicines that also thin your blood, such as aspirin.
- Calcium channel blockers to treat high blood pressure when beta blockers and ACE inhibitors do not control it.
- Diuretics, or medicines to reduce the amount of fluid in your body or to treat high blood pressure when beta blockers and ACE inhibitors do not control it.
- Statins to lower the amount of lipids in your blood and manage the cholesterol levels that can cause plaque. If you do not already take statins for your coronary artery disease, your doctor may recommend that you take statins before and after surgery.
Monitor your condition
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
After surgery and after recovery, your doctor will want to schedule checkups to look for common complications of CABG or further problems from ischemic heart disease.
Even if you do not experience any signs or symptoms, you may need testing about five years after CABG surgery, or sooner if you have new symptoms or have other risk factors. You may take a stress test with an electrocardiogram or echocardiogram, or other heart and lung imaging. If you have symptoms such as chest pain, especially before or during the stress test, your doctor will likely recommend coronary angiography to check on the graft and other arteries.
Make healthy lifestyle changes
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
Your doctor will discuss heart-healthy lifestyle habits and changes that are important to maintaining your health and controlling risk factors, such as hypertension and diabetes. These include:
- Aiming for a healthy weight.
- Being physically active.
- Heart-healthy eating.
- Managing stress.
- Quitting smoking. Visit Smoking and Your Heart and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute’s Your Guide to a Healthy Heart. For free help quitting smoking, you may call the National Cancer Institute’s Smoking Quitline at 1-877-44U-QUIT (1-877-448-7848).
Enroll in cardiac rehabilitation
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
Your doctor may refer you to cardiac rehabilitation to improve your heart health after a heart-related procedure or heart condition. Cardiac rehabilitation helps you maintain or adopt heart-healthy lifestyle practices to lower your risk for cardiovascular diseases. This program includes exercise training, education on heart-healthy living, and counseling to reduce stress and help you return to an active life. These rehabilitation programs are supervised by doctors and are usually offered in hospitals or community facilities.
Monitor your emotional health
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
Your doctor will likely ask if you have had any changes in your mood or other aspects of your well-being. It is important to be treated for depression to increase your chance of full recovery.
If you have symptoms of depression, your doctor may refer you to a mental health specialist. Treatment may include counseling and medicine.
Learn the warning signs of complications and have a plan
-
Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting - Life After
Complications can occur quickly or years after CABG. One possible complication is that the graft will become blocked with plaque and limit or stop blood flow to the heart. If your graft stops working, this may cause a heart attack or other problem with your heart, and you may need additional surgery or PCI.
If you think that you are or someone else is having the following symptoms, call 9-1-1 right away. Every minute matters.
- Heart attack. Signs of heart attack include mild or severe chest pain or discomfort in the center of the chest or upper abdomen that lasts for more than a few minutes or goes away and comes back. It can feel like pressure, squeezing, fullness, heartburn, or indigestion. There may also be pain down the left arm. For those who have had a heart attack in the past, the symptoms may be similar to the previous heart attack. Read more about the signs and symptoms of a heart attack.
- Stroke. If you think someone may be having a stroke, act F.A.S.T. and do the following simple test.
- F—Face: Ask the person to smile. Does one side of the face droop?
- A—Arms: Ask the person to raise both arms. Does one arm drift downward?
- S—Speech: Ask the person to repeat a simple phrase. Is their speech slurred or strange?
- T—Time: If you observe any of these signs, call for help immediately. Early treatment is essential.