what was you heart rate after surgery

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citrustaco

hey guys I am still sitting in the hospital. They just took out the drainaige tube because I had fluid buildup around the heart. I had my robotic mitral valve repair less then 3 weeks ago. I recovered from bacterial endocartitis and have not had a positive culture for about 2 months now.

My problem now is that my heart is beating between since the surgery between 95 and 110 at rest. yesterday it spiked to 180 for a short time while I was blowing my nose. My question is what kind of heart rate did you guys have after your surgery and did it come back down to more normal rate? cardiologist just prescribe me kind of calcium blocker to slow the heart down.
 
Someone better bust you out of that place:)
My second week postop my HR was still easily at 100 when standing up.
One night it took off racing, SVT, and hit 170. Scary. That night I was given Sotalol.
Thereafter I was put on Metoprolol, a beta blocker. All is good.
Your heart is adjusting, try not to stress too much...it gets better!
 
for about the first few days after surgery my resting rate was about 100. If I did a short walk down the hallway I would jump up to 115 - 120. They put me on a beta-blocker and that took me down to about 90. Now Im 5 weeks post-op, still on the beta-blocker and my rate is down to 75 - 80.

The fact that your still in the hospital is probably playing into your rate as well, I was told the stress of being in the hospital can contribute some. If your cardiologist prescribed you something, assuming Toprol, you should see a reduction fairly quickly. I know when I was given it my rate dropped about 10% almost immediately.

Give it some time, Im sure the fluid buildup was adding additional stress, I bet within a few days your rate drops.
 
I had a MVR on 1-8-08 and had a resting rate of 90 - 100 for several weeks. I was scared s**tless that something was wrong and the operation had not been successfull. I had even started Cardo Rehab about 6 weeks ago and still had a rate pushing 90 at rest. My doc had me on carvedilol and then atenolol to try and reduce the rate (with no real success). Nothing slowed the rate until I really started into rehab and an hour a day on the treadmill. I'm now almost 13 weeks post op and my resting rate is between 75-78 most days (and still dropping and no longer on the beta blockers). I really think that my fear was helping to keep my HR high.

Hang in there and keep the faith. As you get more active it should start to drop for you. My doc told me that the elavated rate is normal after valve surgery.
 
My heart rate was around 120 the day after surgery (compared to normal resting of 55), and was in the 100's most of the time I was in the hospital, but slowly dropped to about 95 - 100 by the time I left the hospital after 9 days. But after I got out it wouldn't take anything at all to elevate it over 100. I wore my heart rate monitor all the time for several weeks post op, and the heart rates I got just walking around were like what I would have had doing a vigorous cardio workout pre op. Recommend you wear a heart rate monitor for at least the first few weeks post op so that you can track your heart rates and so that you don't elevate it too high. As an alternative, there are wrist unit heart rate monitors that do not require a chest strap, but they do require that you place two fingers from your other hand on the wrist unit to get a reading. So you do not get a continuous readout like you would with a chest strap/wrist unit. A wrist watch can also be used (take your pulse for 15 seconds and multiply by 4). But this is not continuous, and is not that great if you're moving around.

I got a couple of really good massages within a week of getting out of the hospital, and that immediately lowered the resting heart rate about 10 bpm, to around 85 bpm. I attribute this to the fact that I had been directed to go on a couch potato routine (i.e., no exercise) about two months pre op. Then, with all the medications, IV's, trauma and swelling from the surgery and the fact that you are getting little or no exercise, you get a lot of lactic acid built up in the muscles. The massages acted like an artificial workout since I still was not able to exercise on my own, and got rid of a lot of built up lactic acid. A massage needs to be deep tissue otherwise there won't be much benefit in terms of getting rid of the lactic acid.

It took months, but with exercise and time the heart rate slowly dropped back to pre op levels. And I'm not on any beta blockers; just Warfarin. I think relaxation techniques help also.

Good luck!
 
Key word here - mitral valve. They like to do that. I've been on metoprolol since my surgery 16 years ago to keep my rate down.
 
I am five months post op from aortic valve and root replacement and completed my cardiac rehab in early March. My resting heart rate has dropped to around 85-90 and still seems faster than it was pre-op but the cardiologist told me that this is normal and that it will take your heart between 6-12 months to fully adjust. I am on metoprolol related to this.

I also had occasional a-fib incidents that got further and further apart since the surgery. First they were everyday and then every other day, every third day, every week, and now hopefully gone - I had the last one in late January.

Hope your bumps are slight in the recovery road. - Jim
 
Low to mid 90's for a few weeks post op. Then it started to decrease back down to my pre surgery rate of the low 50's.
 
I am finally home

I am finally home

Got discharged today. Just checked my BP and my heart rate was 96 after coming back from a drive with both my boys. I guess getting out of the hospital does help a lot. For some reason when I read everybody's post I get really emotional I need to stop thinking about this in a negative way.
 
Welcome home...

many of us report having heart-rate issues after surgery and most of them settle down all by themselves, some of us take a Beta-blocker to do the job, it works pretty good for me. The racing heart is also a common thing that tends to happen while our hearts are newly mended, again this is usually temporary....hope it all settles down now that you are home.
 
I'm sorry if I'm about to hijack this thread. You guys have got me concerned.

Maybe, just maybe my ignorance is starting to show.

But is it REALLY important to check your BP???. I'm not any BP meds.....haven't been for about 5 - 6 months.

So, should I be still checking it from time to time? I don't know. Nothing was ever really told to me to do so.

I feel fine.
 
Heart Rate

Heart Rate

Like others have commented, my heart rate immediately following surgery ran in the 100 range. When I started a cardiac rehab program two weeks after surgery my resting rate was in the low to mid-eighties range. My resting norm now is usually between 60 and 70.

My cardiologist placed me on BP meds to prevent me from blowing my aortic aneurysm before surgery and kept me on the meds post-surgery to protect the work the surgeon did. They placed a cap of 140 on me when I was doing my cardiac rehab program. It was always interesting to try to keep my heart rate up while doing the rehab program. The meds would pull it down.

Now that I'm doing my own thing with an exercise program my heart rate max is 175. I usually try to keep my rate in the neighborhood of 140 while exercising now as that's the best aerobic zone area for me. I still do BP meds.

-Philip
 
Checking your heart rate - good but not critical

Checking your heart rate - good but not critical

Hello Freddie -

There are (at least) three reasons / times to keep track of heart rate.

1. Shortly after surgery into the few months afterward. Keep track of BP and pulse when exercising to make sure everything is in check. If you start walking at a good pace and your pulse goes to 180, you need to check it out. Most rehab programs will put you on a monitor for a while to make sure your pulse and rhythm are good.

2. (After your heart is settling in to a good rhythm) Track pulse during exercise to be sure you are pushing yourself at the pace you are aiming for. There is a ton of info in exercise books, web, etc. about computing your max heart rate (an approximation is 220-age for guys) and the effect of keeping your pulse at 60%, 70%, 80%, etc. of the max HR. Generally, higher pulses push you toward athletic performance but you cannot sustain them as long. Slower pulses can be terrific for burning fat and general fitness.

3. (Long term) Keeping track of rest pulse and BP - AND RECORDING IT IN WRITING - will give you a good long-term picture of your fitness level. My rest pulse is about 65. If it starts to creep up, I need to assess my exercise. BP may be even more important. I have a home monitor and measure (and record) it regularly. If BP starts drifting up, I want to know soon rather than waiting a long time till the next time I see my doctor.

John
 
My post surgical heart rate was in the mid 80s at first, controlled with some beta blockers (atenolol?) and diltiazem. Then I was placed on Toprol XL (metroprolol) and gradually my heart rate increased over the next several weeks until my resting pulse was 110 lying in bed. This was about 8 weeks post surgery. Since then I went off Toprol and on to first diltiazem and now Verapamil. Resting pulse still is about 100 at almost four months post surgery.

Frankly, I'm scared of trying to do much aerobic activity because my right ventricle collapses due to a small pericardial effusion, and moves in a bizarre manner, as does my interventricular septum. Mitral valve is functioning just fine now, with trivial regurgitation in the range seen in normal hearts. Rest of the valves look good, too, but my ejection fraction reduced from 65% shortly post surgery to about 50% in my most recent echocardiogram.

There was no post surgical cardiac rehabilitation for me. We live near a town of about 4000 people and the town's rehabilitation service doesn't deal with post open heart surgery people. My cardiologist--another town further away--said it was okay for me to resume aerobic exercise, but I'm too scared because what few PVCs I now get take place during exertion. I'm by myself most days with or without our small children; wife works in a clinic full-time during the week. Any suggestions?
 
I am now 5 weeks post op and my heart rate, as I sit here and type, is 92 b/m. It never drops below 85. Before the mitral valve replacement, my resting rate was always in the mid 60's.

Needless to say, I was concerned about the elevated rate, so when I saw my cardio last week I asked him why the resting rate was so high. He said "what do you expect, you just went through a major operation." He did not put me on any medication.

I am still very concerned about the high rate, and when I go to cardio rehab, it goes up to around 120 on the treadmill and takes quite a while to come back down to the mid-90's after the workout. Last week the nurse at rehab called my cardio because she was concerned about how long it was taking for my heart rate to come back down to the 90's, and the cardio just told her to not be concerned. I changed cardio's and will be seeing the new one in 2 weeks.

Anyway I did a search on this forum for rapid resting heart rate and I guess that a higher resting rate is the norm for most people after OHS, at least for a while. Apparently it is more common with people having Mitral valve repair/replacement.
 
Freddie said:
I'm sorry if I'm about to hijack this thread. You guys have got me concerned.

Maybe, just maybe my ignorance is starting to show.

But is it REALLY important to check your BP???. I'm not any BP meds.....haven't been for about 5 - 6 months.

So, should I be still checking it from time to time? I don't know. Nothing was ever really told to me to do so.

I feel fine.
Click to expand...

We must presume that you see your doctor regularly and when you do, your bp/hr is always checked. If you have no problems, I see no reason why you should check it at home unless you begin to develop higher than usual numbers.

you can check your own pulse rate. Find your pulse on your wrist, have a second hand watch or clock close - count your beats for 15 seconds and multiply that number by 4 and you have your heart rate. or do it for 30 secs and multiply by 2 -
 
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