10 years with a mechanical St.Judes "clicker" - heart function normal, ventricle size reduced to normal a few month post surgery, very active
==> I lead a normal life
allow me to share a few thoughts
1. I exercise regularly, always with a Polar HR monitor
2. Doing a fair bit of high altitude trekking (> 5000 meters above sea level) and a lot of mountain biking ('normal' trails, I dont do crazy downhill stuff)
3. Warfarin: The initial 2-3 years I paid a lot of attention to every leaf of cabbage I ate with no apparent stabilisation of the INR, now I avoid the most obvious K-bombs, otherwise I eat and drink what I like. INR fluctuates around 1.9 - 2.5. I have decided to live with that and my cardio is OK with it as well.
4. bleeding: NOT an issue.I do cut myself with the razor, I fall down from the mountain bike every once in a while, etc. besides getting ugly hematomas, I have never "leaked" blood by the liters as some of the unjustified horror stories are suggesting.
5. I do notice however, that wound heeling seems to take longer, but that could also be age-related ?
6. on the lighter side: I attended a TaiChi/meditation course a few years ago. During one lesson we sat in a forest trying to be as calm and quiet as possible. After the exercise the guy who sat next to me said: "hey, your watch ticked so loudly - I could barely concentrate on the meditation" - I smiled...
==> my own experience in a nutshell: be a little bit disciplined pre and post surgery, then a "clicker" is a non-issue
all the best to everybody
ar bee
==> I lead a normal life
allow me to share a few thoughts
1. I exercise regularly, always with a Polar HR monitor
2. Doing a fair bit of high altitude trekking (> 5000 meters above sea level) and a lot of mountain biking ('normal' trails, I dont do crazy downhill stuff)
3. Warfarin: The initial 2-3 years I paid a lot of attention to every leaf of cabbage I ate with no apparent stabilisation of the INR, now I avoid the most obvious K-bombs, otherwise I eat and drink what I like. INR fluctuates around 1.9 - 2.5. I have decided to live with that and my cardio is OK with it as well.
4. bleeding: NOT an issue.I do cut myself with the razor, I fall down from the mountain bike every once in a while, etc. besides getting ugly hematomas, I have never "leaked" blood by the liters as some of the unjustified horror stories are suggesting.
5. I do notice however, that wound heeling seems to take longer, but that could also be age-related ?
6. on the lighter side: I attended a TaiChi/meditation course a few years ago. During one lesson we sat in a forest trying to be as calm and quiet as possible. After the exercise the guy who sat next to me said: "hey, your watch ticked so loudly - I could barely concentrate on the meditation" - I smiled...
==> my own experience in a nutshell: be a little bit disciplined pre and post surgery, then a "clicker" is a non-issue
all the best to everybody
ar bee
