the bounding heart rate

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Ozmercy

I saw a thread about this awhile ago but don't remember what was being said, my heart rate is usually around 80 and normal for me is in the low 60's or even high 50's when in good shape. Since the surgery the beat though is bounding. Sometimes it wakes me up at night it is so loud and pounding hard. Is this normal? Will it settle down as I improve and get back into a healthier body condition?

I am off for my check up's with both surgeon (Trento) and Cardiologist (Siegel) today. I hope to start cardiac rehab. I am up to walking 20- 25 minutes 2 times a day. It is day 18 since surgery. Any suggestions as to questions to ask the doctors later today?

I am happy to be having a boring recovery, but am also getting cabin fever. I want to get out and about more, but not to fast. I definitely don't want to take any steps backwards.
 
It's been a while for me, so I don't recall personally. But I do know that many people here have reported the feeling and sound of a pounding heart for a while after surgery.
 
Ozmercy said:
I saw a thread about this awhile ago but don't remember what was being said, my heart rate is usually around 80 and normal for me is in the low 60's or even high 50's when in good shape. Since the surgery the beat though is bounding. Sometimes it wakes me up at night it is so loud and pounding hard. Is this normal? Will it settle down as I improve and get back into a healthier body condition?

I am off for my check up's with both surgeon (Trento) and Cardiologist (Siegel) today. I hope to start cardiac rehab. I am up to walking 20- 25 minutes 2 times a day. It is day 18 since surgery. Any suggestions as to questions to ask the doctors later today?

I am happy to be having a boring recovery, but am also getting cabin fever. I want to get out and about more, but not to fast. I definitely don't want to take any steps backwards.
Click to expand...


I have very much the same experience 4 weeks post-op. During the night I sometimes wake up with a fast (pounding) heart rate, but I noticed that this happens when I have intense dreams and sleep on my back. In addition, I noticed that my heart beat seems to be pronounced after meals and then settles after a while.

On a more worriesome note, since a couple of days my HR has been able to go really slow, as low as 60 to upper 50's. This happens when I'm totally relaxed watching a movie lying on my couch, where my HR is steady but too slow in my opinion, since I'm not fit by any stretch of the imagination. And now the scary part: It's known that heart block, or AV block, is a risk with AVR and can often be characterised by very slow heart beats.... Am I witnessing the onset AV block ...? :(

Back to you, heart rates between 60 - 100 are normal and I do think yours will settle in time. My doctor told me that post-op HR mid range 60 - 100 are normal and are actually a good sign, since this would rule out AV block with AVR patients.

Your HR will come down in time I guess, first with episodes and then more permanently.
 
I had the same issue, but I don't think it ever actually woke me up. The night sweats were what woke me up. It seemed to be a problem mostly based on the position I chose to lie. On my back wasn't too bad, my right side was noticable but almost tolerable, and my left side was unbearable. I also had some arrhythmia, PVC's, and a bunch of other things that concerned me greatly at the time, but turned out be be nothing more than the heart reshaping process...
 
I had the same problem

I had the same problem

my heart rate went up to 130 it was pretty scarey. Told the dr and he put me on a event monitor but it has'nt happened in a few weeks at least not that high.
So I've been told that it is pretty normal for the first few months. I'm 9 weeks post surgery so will just keep trucken.
 
Yeah I think this is all fairly normal after OHS. It certainly has been my experience too, Oz. I was told by a nurse, I think, that actually a faster heart rate right now isn't a bad thing...helps prevent clots from forming I guess. I've also had the PVC's - or skipped beats, etc. - and my cardio put me on Toprol XL for that. Those can be dangerous but for the most part I bet it's just the heart healing.

Dustin - I have heart block and I'm telling you, when they turned down my pacemaker during the checkups I felt it. It isn't just a slowing of the HR; it's a feeling your heart isn't working normally, you feel weak & dizzy & like you might throw up. Of course it's wise to mention it to your cardio - he might put a monitor on you to make sure.

-Chris
 
Your not alone

Your not alone

Gary,
I'm so glad you posted this question. I've had the same question in mind but I ask so many questions that I hated to ask another one.
My heart rate has been in the 80's too. Sometimes I feel so out of breath.. like I can't get a deep breath. I've been trying to track down the pattern of when I feel this.. yesterday I had Rosa's mexican food. I THINK it gets worse with carbs. I am trying to cut down on my carbs to see what happens.
Last night I felt nauseated and out of breath and dizzy. Today I woke up with nausea and weakness and diziness. I went outside and watered my plants and I began to feel better. I don't know why?? I had a MRI at 4:00 and I was beginning to think I was going to have to cancel.. then I began to feel better, I can't make sense of it.
My pounding heart rate is worse sleeping on my left side too. I am glad to know you are all going through this so I guess it's normal.
My INR was 4.0 today so I thought maybe it could be this too.??
I hope you begin to feel better!
Thanks,
Deana
 
Unfortunately I have to say a little over 4 years later (2 tickers added) I still have to sleep with the television on. My heart rate is always very high, 95-100 bpm at rest with Verapamil. I'm also very thin and not much of a cushion to muffle the sound. I still don't sleep on my stomach because I feel my heart almost beating into the mattress. Ok, exaggerating but that's what it feels like. But it has obviously gotten so much better, I also think I'm very sensitive to it. Being in the bathroom after surgery made me so uneasy because it was so quiet and the tiles muffle any other sounds. But I'm happy to say I'm over my fears :p , but will I ever shut the TV off? Not anytime soon and I'm ok with that. Good Luck on finding some comfortable ways to deal with it.
 
Oz,

I definitely feel the pounding. I told my card. that it sounded like someone inside my chest thumping my chest wall, especially when I lie on my left side and when I take a deep breath in almost ANY position.

My card. responding with an explanation that some of the connective tissue around the heart is dissected away from the heart during the surgery.... I think I understood him to say that the heart is therefore a bit more free to move after the surgery so we tend to feel it more. Not sure if he is right and not absolutely certain that I understood him correctly, but it seemed to make sense so I accepted it.

jimmy
 
I had very intense heartbeats and increased heart rate at about a month out of surgery. I mean, I honestly felt like a cartoon as if there should be a bright red heart shaped thing boing-ing out of my chest! Lying down or even leaning on my left side set them off.

By the time I got an appointment with a cardio, did the event monitor for a few days, tried to get EKG's to catch them and had an echo and waited for the report......they calmed down and then fizzled away. And they were benign to begin with!!

I hope all of yours will too!! They are exasperating and scary to say the least!

Good luck! Keep us posted.

:) Marguerite
 
Wow, Jimmy, That is the first time I ever heard that explanation and it's seems to make sense to me. That's really an interesting way to look at it, seeing after any type of surgery the body part is in some way is compromised from it's original positioning. These are just one of those things that make you say hmmmm???? lol.
 
I was going to ask the same question! But like one of the other persons who wrote a reply to this thread, I felt like I had already asked enough questions about my own situation.

I am 5 weeks out. Before surgery my rate was in the 60's. After surgery it went up to the 100's. My local cardiologist increased my metoprolol from 50 mg a day to 100 (and my heart rate did go down to about 85). My surgeon, when I saw him for a follow up last week, was completely unconcerned. So I don't worry about it.

As to the cabin fever, I definitely felt it. I hated staying home all day. I returned part time to light duty after only two weeks. I worried that I was pushing things too fast, but everyone is different, and I was able to lay down at work whenever I needed (and I did on several occasions), and I still get tired three weeks later, so I don't have an absolute answer to the "cabin fever" thing.
 
I am 3 1/2 mo post-op and can finally say that the crazy heart rates/rhythms..and pounding days are less frequent than the quite normal synus rhythm days :)

I think time under your belt will make things better.
 
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