Please help me figure how “normal 83” feels?

[SiestaKeyJimmy]

As I’ve discussed in the past, I struggle with “symptomatic”. My Aortic Stenosis velocity is 4.1, “severe”. My problem is knowing if I have symptoms - or how bad they are?

I’m 83, never been that old before so I don’t know how “normal 83” feels?

My main symptom seems to be fatigue, not as much energy as I used to have. I spend more time doing nothing but sitting watching TV than I used to. When I bend down I get somewhat “short breathed”, but only for a minute, and not “gasping for air” or anything like that. When I go to bed, at first for a few minutes I am slightly short of breath, but once relaxed, I have no breathing issues and sleep well.

I walk daily, at a fairly normal pace, I usually walk about 1.5 miles, never “out of breath” or needing to rest. My main problem is my legs get tired after 30-40 minutes or so. My ankle (right only because a vein is missing from my quad by-pass 6 years ago), sometimes gets slightly swollen, just enough to be noticeable, but doesn’t really get badly swollen, and not often or any problem.

So I seem in this twilight zone. My cardo seems to be waiting for me to really start struggling or complaining before he addresses my “severe AS” problem. Seems perhaps if I can get TAVR, it might give me slightly more energy, and slightly less minor short breath - BUT the procedure could fail and require another open heart, or give me more Afib, or worse.

Any thoughts or advice is welcome!

 

[dick0236]

I’m 83, never been that old before so I don’t know how “normal 83” feels?

My main symptom seems to be fatigue, not as much energy as I used to have. I spend more time doing nothing but sitting......

.......So I seem in this twilight zone. My cardo seems to be waiting for me to really start struggling or complaining before he addresses my “severe AS” problem. Seems perhaps if I can get TAVR, it might give me slightly more energy, and slightly less minor short breath - BUT the procedure could fail and require another open heart, or give me more Afib, or worse.

Any thoughts or advice is welcome!

FWIW, "my normal 83" was like "my normal 73"....I thought. At 83 I was still playing 9 holes of golf, wading creeks fishing, cleaning my house gutters, etc.......but with a little more fatigue. I thought it was "old age" complicated by a heart issue. It continued to worsen until I turned 85/86 and then I "hit the wall" and found it difficult to do anything. My cardio, based on history and testing, diagnosed it as "pulmonary aortic hypertension" that had been identified 10 years earlier. PAH is a "hardening of the lung tissue" making it more difficult to provide oxygen to the body which was probably made worse by my cardiovascular health issues. While I no longer play golf, fish, or climb ladders because of packing an oxygen tank around I do live an otherwise "normal life".......and have outlived all of my close "normal" friends.

 

[V__]

I walk daily, at a fairly normal pace, I usually walk about 1.5 miles, never “out of breath” or needing to rest. My main problem is my legs get tired after 30-40 minutes or so.

I'm not in a position to give any advise, since I never was 83. And how the age feels is probably different for everybody. The only thought on exercise is that it might help to "split" the walk into 2 or even 3, at different times of the day. As an example, if you walk twice for 20 min, that's a larger total exercise volume than once for 30 min. But perhaps it could be tolerated better.

 

[dornole]

I think you described your experience well and I’d give your doc the experience you shared here. At 83 you’re not really talking about what’s best for your heart in the long term and your longevity (as factors in strongly for asymptomatic younger people) but the kind of life you want to live now and for however long you have left. So I imagine the answer might be, are you having symptoms that make life miserable/ make you willing to take the risk of surgery. That said I’m a huge advocate for giving your doctor specifics and metrics:

Me: I’m coughing up blood a little

Most docs I saw: here is an inhaler and some cough medicine

Me: I’m coughing up blood a little

Doc: like how much, what color

Me: bright red clumps about the size of a quarter

Doc: ……… here is your ticket to the hospital

You did a good job explaining specifics so I’d share those and how happy / unhappy you are with the current state of affairs.

 

[LondonAndy]

You are as old as you feel. I recommend that you feel a 21 year old.

 

[SiestaKeyJimmy]

Hey thanks guys!

I also heard from friends that same advice - on my next Cardo visit I’m going to quickly read this writeup to him.

Also I like the idea of 2 shorter walks making a better single day total!

As for feeling I’m 21, that would never work for me, but maybe I could try feeling I’m 75!