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Had a mitral replacement (bovine) May of 2007. Now, I'm starting back to school to become a PA. Start in January 2010. Inspired by a PA on my surgical team, I have completed biology and chemistry pre-reqs, worked as an EMT and a home health aide, and volunteered in an ER. I hope to go into...

Hello - I had an MVR in May 2007 and recovered pretty quickly and well. I'm back to running, biking, and climbing. My illness and operation served as a "come to Jesus" moment and I thought hard about what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't think I would do well as a retiree and I'd been...

Hello - I had MV replacement a year ago tomorrow - 5/23/08. It went well; I have exercised and eaten diligently; I have recovered well and now do everything I did pre-illness. I even rock climb better than I did then. I have a cousin who was not so fortunate. He had a congenitally defective...

I'm 11 months post MV replacement. I've been climbing at a fairly casual level for a long time. In the US, rock climbs are graded from 5.1 to 5.15. This past Saturday, I climbed my first 5.9+ cleanly (no falls) including my time pre and post surgery. Strength comes back faster than cardio...

Hello - I had a mitral valve replacement the end of May 2007. I have been dedicated about diet, meds, and exercise since I left the hospital. I do running, a little biking (weather not cooperative yet), weights, and rock climbing. I feel like I have gotten back into pretty good shape...

Hello - In May 07, I had my mitral valve replaced at Mass General. Great surgeon (Gus Vlahakes) and hospital. I had a bovine pericardial valve used so I could continue t live a physically active life. It is now 10 months post and I am doing great. Probably in better shape than before...

Hello - I had an MV replacement the end of May 2007. Since then, I've been thinking a lot about my focus in life and would like to hear other people's throughts or reference material. Like for many of you, having heart surgery was a wake-up call that my time is finite and mortality is not...

Hello - I had an MVR on May 23. Was hoping to gradually get back into rock-climbing and doing sprint triathlons. Climbing is going great. I want out with my climbing partner to the Quincy Quarries and am climbing almost as well as before surgery. Not leading yet but I will after another...

Last week I was at a family reunion at the outer banks of North Carolina. Went kiteboarding (not very well but enthusiastically) on my three month anniversary. Then my daughter and I went parasiling the next day. Yah-hoo. John

Hello - I had an MV replacement May 23. Recuperation seems to be going well - I'm doing just about everything but my endurance for running, mountain climbing, etc. is a little slow coming back. A few times (maybe three in three months) I have had very brief episodes of dizziness/clumsiness...

Hello - A friend of mine is a medical student at Tufts. She told me they call the sternum scar the "mark of the warrior". I kind of liked that. John MVR 5/23/07

Hello - I had an MV replacement May 23 and started to recuperate quickly. Walking 2 hrs a day through the first month then some biking and running and weights through July. But running endurance was not coming back very fast. I could run (slowly) a little less than half a mile then walk a...

Now 5 weeks post op for MVR. Had my post-op and the surgeon said I could do anything that did not impact the sternum but to take it slow and easy on stuff that uses chest muscles. My daughter was home for the weekend so I did my first "mountain" climb of the Great Blue Hill (635') south of...

I'm trying to build myself back up after going from 171# to 146# in six months. i have one of these for breakfast about twice a week. In a blender, blend bunch of fruit - berries in the summer, banana, ... Or frozem.. I like blueberries best. carton of yogurt large scoop of soy protein...

Hello - I had MVR surgery 5/23. Based on my experiences, here are a few things to do. 1. Get in good physical shape. Exercise as much as you can, stop smoking, stop drinking too much, get your weight to a healthy level, then exercise more. Being in good shape is the best thing you can do to...

Hello - I am one month out of surgery for MVR. Sternum pain is almost completely gone - still a little dull ache and slightly sensitive to the touch. But sometimes in the AM I have a backache right under one shouler blade or the other or sometimes both. Feels like a muscle ache as though I...

Had MVR surgery on 5/23 and returned home on 5/30. Surgeon hoped for a repair but said the MV was a mess with tears/holes in both leaflets so he did a replacement instead using a Carptentier-Edwards Pericardial valve so I can avoid coumadin long-term and resume rock-climbing sometime - Oct...

I can feel my anxiety rise as my surgery date (May 23) approaches. Among my ways of distracting myself are humor and music. Here are two stories I heard and the beginnings of an iPod list to take to the hospital. Anyone care to add? Story 1 - a friend of ours had an AVR about 15 years ago...

I have an MVR and will have surgery on May 23. If a replacement, it will be a bovine valve (Carpentier-Edwards) so I will not need long-term coumadin. Before the MVR, and what led to the detection of the murmur then all the testing, was a serious case of pneumonia. The time-line is (a) 1/1/07...

I will go in soon for a repair/replacement of mitral valve with an expectation of miimally invasive surgery. Tissue of some sort if a replacement. I plan to continue swimming and rock-climbing. Not very good at either of these but I enjoy them immensely. I'll be in a cardio rehab program in...