Still struggling cardio wise running, etc. 2.8 years after Aortic Valve replacement

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Hi Midlife crisis. I had a new pig tissue valve in 2011 (71 age) I was a top Australian Masters distance runner. I still did 66min for 10km at 77age! (2017) I found I was minutes slower per 1km than before my operation. I was told it is because I'm on 'statins' for high cholesterol ! They give muscle weakness. finish Melbourne,Australia 10km 2017. At present - got blood clots in lungs! Will recover.
Wow.
 
Anyone else experienced this???

Heck yes. I'm a cyclist and after my 2nd, really had low stamina issues when riding. A couple things:
1. Beta Blockers really messed with me...not a fan.
2. I switched to a Whole Foods Plant Based life (read anything Esselstyn either Rip or Caldwell.) I almost gave up cycling in 2017 and then read an Engine 2 book and ended up riding 3,500 miles that year. Needless to say, I'm a huge fan. This diet has worked like a Beta Blocker in reducing my heart rate but without the other side effects.
 
He’s just a little chunky right now (I am sure a growth spurt and puberty are about to hit and will help) and want to find a good activity for him. Walking and swimming may be the best bet. The crashing in a bike scenario in coumadin makes me steer away from that. His cardiologist is not a fan of falling. ;). Thank you for that thought, he probably doesn’t like it because it is hard at first and even if he got good at it, it still may not be his thing. The school PE class grades the kids in their time improvement when running a mile. Just one, but he hates it.

I wouldn't worry about crashing a bike while on warfarin. Lots of people on this forum ride bikes and eat rat poison :) He needs a helmet but nowadays that's common. You might want to counsel him to wear long pants and sleeves in case he falls, but that still isn't really necessary. Riding a bike can be safer that what happens in gym class (e.g. getting kicked in the shins on purpose during soccer, elbowed in the face in basketball, etc.)
 
scott.eitman -- you rode 3500 miles on an engine 2 book? That must have been one HELL of a book.

tom in MO - I think that in California, it's a law that bike riders wear a helmet (I may be wrong - a lot of people around me are renting bikes, and none of them has worn a helmet - maybe there's an exception for this type of bike). I, too, wouldn't be all that worried about a kid crashing a bike -- there'll be bruising, and perhaps cuts that take a bit longer to close, but I doubt that any of it can be life threatening if the INR is in range.
 
I was never in the running shape that you were, but prior to surgery I believed that any healthy person could string together 3 -10 min miles. Now, 7 years after two mechanical valves put in at age 42, I still haven’t done it. I have put a restrictions on my effort though... once my heart rate hits 160, I walk until it’s back down to 120.

We all have things that we loved to do before surgery. For me it was martial arts. I got my first BB in college and fought TKD for university, fought kickboxing in my late 20s and no holds bared in my 30’s. Fighting was a huge part of my identity. But two mechanical valves and a lifetime prescription of warfarin pretty much ensures I’ll never fight again.

for me I’ve been working more on focusing on exercise for health. I try to forget where I was athletically and focus on where I’m going. We’ve got nothing to prove, right?
 
Arthur, the things that made us unique as young men, don't matter in middle age.

According to my son, not only did our generation mess up the world (he's probably right) but we've also become a 'meme'. I notice you have a beard :)

Like Diocletian, I have retired to making plastic model planes.
 
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I have put a restrictions on my effort though... once my heart rate hits 160, I walk until it’s back down to 120.
...
for me I’ve been working more on focusing on exercise for health. I try to forget where I was athletically and focus on where I’m going. We’ve got nothing to prove, right?
all wise words. You can still train, consider Aikido. I did that till a motorcycle neck injury made tumbles difficult (read hurt my neck frequently)

All things change in time. Wisdom is accepting and embracing change. Play it safe and only ride your scooter through snake infested areas like me ;)
(Note: Australian male language can be heard)


Best wishes
 
I don't think this generation (boomers?) can take full responsibility for messing up the world.

Humanity has been burning through carbon sources for centuries -- from coal to fossil fuels - and have been releasing that stuff into the air, pouring it into ditches, making man made lakes of the stuff, etc. Population has been growing because medical science has increased the lifespan, reduced infant mortality, and gave us conditions that would help the world population to grow -- feeding that larger population put a strain on the environment (more animals for food; dangerous pesticides that we didn't fully know were harmful, etc.). A lot of this pre-dates 'our' generation.

And, in spite of climate change deniers, this generation and one before it actually made some moves to reduce the impact of some of the greatest dangers to the climate. I live in California, and their clean air legislation helped to reduce air pollution and limit how much worse it would have gotten. (I'm old enough to remember the smoggy air before the California clean air stuff came into effect. I remember going downtown on a hot day, being able to see clearly perhaps 20 feet before the choking yellow smog blocked the sky.

If you need a reminder of what these old cars smelled like -- find a vintage car and drive behind it for a while. Then, multiply that smelly stuff by millions, and get an idea of what it was like before the generations that preceded us took action to reduce it.

We're nowhere near fixing this world, but this generation can't take full responsibility for messing it up. And these 'next' generations have their work cut out for them - rather than pointing fingers, perhaps they can work on fixing things so that THEIR children and grandchildren will still have a planet to thrive in.
 
I don't think this generation (boomers?) can take full responsibility for messing up the world.

Humanity has been burning through carbon sources for centuries --
I totally agree. I'm really interested in Paleolithic history (hence my username). Hunter gatherers in the paleolithic era hunted mammoths to near extinction, that despite the small human population. At the time when cave paintings were done at Lascaux and other caves in the Dordogne, around 17,000 years ago, this was going on - people were such efficient hunters back then. Many, many animals became extinct due to mankind's hunting and due to an ice age - ice age due to the normal variations in climate that happen. During the first 1,000 years AD Europe was much hotter, vines for wine grew easily in England, then the weather got colder, so cold infact that the Thames river froze over in winter for several years. And now it's getting warmer.

And talk about deforestation - England was a fully forested area around 7,000 years ago as I'm sure much of Europe was. Then farming began to take hold. Swaths of forest were burned down to clear land. I believe that happened in Australia too - it did not used to have such a vast inland desert. The middle east and north Africa became desert due to man's overuse of the land for crops. And so on.
 
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