personality change after CABG?

[baconsandwich]

My dad (79) has just had a CABG / triple bypass. He is home from hospital now and seems completely altered personality-wise, in a good way! For years and years before he was virtually silent, often moody, bad tempered and often aggressive. Now (2 weeks post op) he is almost bright and breezy, chatty to the point of being verbose and quite emotional. e.g. he got quite unusually upset at a news story earlier about a child who had been abused. Of course it's great on the one hand that he is so much easier to be with but the change is so marked that it's quite disconcerting & I am wondering what has caused it and whether it could be a result of his surgery. I have found some interesting stuff on the internet about "pump head syndrome" but all the examples talk about patients with negative side effects or cognitive impairment and we seem to be dealing with the opposite. Any thoughts?

Not sure about the specifics, but when peopLe are ill, in pain, exhausted, it can make them grumpy in a fairly long term way. Perhaps his mood is better because he has been relieved from exhaustion by the op? Hope he recovers well.

Before the CABG he will have been exhausted, in pain and quite possibly have permenant headache or impaired cognative ability if not enough oxygen was getting to his brain.

That should have all been relieved by the op. He is simply able to be fun, have a laugh, talk without becoming exhausted.