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Hello everyone. It's Wes from Osaka, Japan. I was active in the forum 6 years ago when I had my AVR. My heart is doing great by the way! The lungs? Not so good. I've come down with tuberculosis and have been hospitalized in Osaka. The treatment is pretty standard (a lot of antibiotics for a...

Greetings to all! I was at the Cardiologist the other day, and realized that readers might be interested to know about some of the common medical terminology in other languages. I'll start with Japanese. If any of you ever find yourselves in this country, you'll be relieved to know that most of...

Well, it's been exactly 2 years since undergoing AVR and the good news is my heart is looking great! My latest echo showed great results and the arrhythmia I had a few weeks ago has subsided. Now for the bad news. My lungs have taken a beating this past year and my asthma is out of control...

Greetings everyone. Well, I'm just about 2 years out from my AVR and last night I had my very first bout with arrhythmia! I held out for 14 hours before going to the hospital. I know that most of them can be benign, but just wanted to make sure. I had no other symptoms, and luckily it showed...

Greetings everyone. Sorry it's been ages since I last posted, but I've been secretly lurking here occasionally to try to keep up with things. Unfortunately, I'm writing with a question about my health in hopes that other people may have experienced the same thing: I've been suffering from a...

greetings everyone. I am about to fly halfway around the world to visit my family, and I have an interesting question that I hope you can help me with. I normally take my warfarin dose around 7:30pm each night, and was wondering if I should adjust my dosage time to the new time zone I will...

Happy November everyone! I'm preparing for a dental visit, but I have a question, so here goes: What antibiotics does your dentist typically prescribe before a dental visit? The last time I had a prescription written it was over 8 years ago, and at that time my cardiologist prescribed...

It's been a year since my AVR, and I decided to celebrate by climbing a 3000m peak, which is almost 10,000ft above sea level! I had no problems with altitude sickness or stamina. The mountain also happened to be the last peak in my quest to climb the 100 famous mountains of Japan, which has...

Greetings everyone! It's been ages since I've posted a question, but I've been lurking and occasionally chiming in to help a newbie every now and again. Alas the time has come for me to seek some advice: I've been taking 5mg of Carvedilol and 40mg of Diovan daily ever since my operation a...

I'm 7 months post-op and finally back to my full pre-op hiking routine. Yesterday was my first full-on endurance test, and I passed. A 2000m (6700ft) vertical elevation change, and lots of snow. The peak was 2800m (9200ft) high, but I had no altitude sickness or strange palpitations. I...

greetings everyone! i'm terrribly sorry I've been pretty sporadic in my posts. i haven't forgotten about you all and.........i haven't needed any advice! (a good thing IMHO) anyway, tomorrow is my 6 month anniversary! i can't believe how quickly time has flown. here's a brief update: my...

at long last! I've finally gotten off my lazy butt and took some photos. This is y Japanese version of the TOOTS photo. This was the gown that I wore during surgery (pretty stylish, huh?). I've actually got an extra gown (they made me buy two but only ended up using one), so if anyone would...

Not sure if I should put this in Pre Op or Post Op, as it may help out people in both situations! Anyway, as part of another post, I realized that stretching is something that the doctors may not talk about as part of pre op preparation. Over here in Japan, they showed us a video on how to...

greeting to all. I just wanted to update you all on the latest, so as to put everyone's mind at ease. The doc cleaned my wound and sent me home with some non-stick bandages. They seem to have done the trick, as I'm now the proud owner of a healthy, dry scab! Hooray! Thanks to everyone for...

happy new year everyone! I last wrote about a month ago asking for advice about a protruding wire. Well, the stitch eventually worked its way out and then I ended up trimming the rest of the wire. I don't know if you'd call it a wire - it looked more like fishing line. Anyway, I thought the...

well, I'm just about 3 months post op and decided to utilize my winter vacation for a fun adventure. I decided to do a 3-day 40km hike on an old Shinto pilgrimage route near Osaka. The moment my wife & I jumped on the train, however, my fever kicked in. "Uh, oh", I thought. "My first post op...

season's greetings everyone. I'm now almost 2 months post op (boy does time fly!~) and my recovery is going somewhat smoothly sans my current issue. I seem to have some sort of wire protruding from the top of my incision. It started showing itself about a week ago and seems to be growing...

Greetings everyone! I just finished the paperwork with the Osaka city office. It's official! I'm disabled. You see, anyone who has a mechanical valve qualifies for disability benefits in Japan! Now I can ride the subway for free, get into any museum for free, I get discounts on airfare...

greetings all outdoor enthusiasts! I'm about one month Post Op and was wondering when most of you resumed your alpine pursuits after surgery. Should I wait until the sternum heals a little more before meandering into the wilderness? How demanding (on the heart) is hiking anyway? I'm itching...

greetings everyone! I had my first follow-up visit with the surgeon today. My INR is slowly coming into range (1.75 now but going up day by day). My X-ray looked good as well, and the 15cm scar is healing nicely. My surgeon has a funny sense of humor. I laughed when he got out the ruler to...