sood
Well-known member
Howdy folks. I've been MIA for a long time, I hope to change that and be active in the forums for those of you that always helped me in my tough days of before.
I'm happy to report I feel pretty excellent at 14 months post op! I definitely don't feel like I had surgery only 14 months ago (AVR with On-x valve replacement and ascending aorta graft). Physically I'm pretty much back to my peak physical condition pre-surgery. I'd like to report on a couple things some people always have questions on pre-op:
1) How is life with warfarin? - It's not bad, it's different but definitely not bad. I get my blood checked at the lab every 4 weeks usually. I have had periods where my INR had stabilized on the low end of my 2.0 - 3.0 ratio and now it has jumped up. I'm actually taking a lot of warfarin, 60 MG per week to be exact. At the beginning I had a very hard time maintaining a INR of 2. Now I'm on the higher end of the spectrum so I expect that my dosage will probably be lowered soon as my INR is peaking around 3.0 now. I'm usually within range though. The brutal honesty of being on Warfarin, I'm still happy with my decision with the mechanical valve. It does get frustrating sometimes though. I try to eat what I want, but also have to maintain some type of consistency with how much salad and other greens I eat on a weekly basis. The frustration usually comes in when I am running around and want to eat something healthy like getting a salad or something. And then I think to myself I just had greens a couple times this week, maybe I shouldn't have that. So I run and get some junky fast food instead. But this can be managed and my appetite can still be directed to better places than junk.
2) Tick, tick tick - Many people wonder about the noise of the mechanical valve. At first it was hard to adjust to, especially when I could hear my ears ringing with ticking while I was conversing with others. But you get used to it, I hardly ever hear it now. And I truly believe it is much quieter than it was when I first had my surgery. It's easy to tell when laying in bed, right after surgery it was very loud and sometimes it was hard to fall asleep with the ticking in my ears. But now I don't really hear that same ringing. I have to concentrate hard to hear the ticking usually and can only hear it if it is totally quiet or i'm sitting a certain way. This should be no reason why anyone should turn down mechanical.
3) This is not something people wonder about, but truly the most frustrating thing post op has been my development of an allergy to Spinach. I used to eat spinach all the time pre-op. I have a hard time remembering if when I was a couple months pre-op, if the spinach salads I was having was causing me problems. But anyway post op I am so allergic to spinach that one little bite of something with spinach makes my throat close. This is a medical mystery and no one knows why this has happened. There were things I would eat pre-op that it is impossible for me to eat now. So I can only assume some switch flipped post op and I'm highly allergic to something now that maybe didn't really bother me before. I think and this is a wild guess it could be a cause of Warfarin. I'm fine with broccoli and other things with high contents of vitamin K however so it doesn't make sense.
4) Heart beating out of your chest - Yes this indeed does happen, it is not quite as bad as it was right after surgery. But the mechanical valve (at least mine) does seem to cause your heart to pound sometimes. This is related to a lot of other things too, like posture, how much caffeine I've had ,etc.. But there are times where I feel my chest pounding. But it doesn't really bother me.
Anyway happy ticking or moo-ing or oink-ing!!
I'm happy to report I feel pretty excellent at 14 months post op! I definitely don't feel like I had surgery only 14 months ago (AVR with On-x valve replacement and ascending aorta graft). Physically I'm pretty much back to my peak physical condition pre-surgery. I'd like to report on a couple things some people always have questions on pre-op:
1) How is life with warfarin? - It's not bad, it's different but definitely not bad. I get my blood checked at the lab every 4 weeks usually. I have had periods where my INR had stabilized on the low end of my 2.0 - 3.0 ratio and now it has jumped up. I'm actually taking a lot of warfarin, 60 MG per week to be exact. At the beginning I had a very hard time maintaining a INR of 2. Now I'm on the higher end of the spectrum so I expect that my dosage will probably be lowered soon as my INR is peaking around 3.0 now. I'm usually within range though. The brutal honesty of being on Warfarin, I'm still happy with my decision with the mechanical valve. It does get frustrating sometimes though. I try to eat what I want, but also have to maintain some type of consistency with how much salad and other greens I eat on a weekly basis. The frustration usually comes in when I am running around and want to eat something healthy like getting a salad or something. And then I think to myself I just had greens a couple times this week, maybe I shouldn't have that. So I run and get some junky fast food instead. But this can be managed and my appetite can still be directed to better places than junk.
2) Tick, tick tick - Many people wonder about the noise of the mechanical valve. At first it was hard to adjust to, especially when I could hear my ears ringing with ticking while I was conversing with others. But you get used to it, I hardly ever hear it now. And I truly believe it is much quieter than it was when I first had my surgery. It's easy to tell when laying in bed, right after surgery it was very loud and sometimes it was hard to fall asleep with the ticking in my ears. But now I don't really hear that same ringing. I have to concentrate hard to hear the ticking usually and can only hear it if it is totally quiet or i'm sitting a certain way. This should be no reason why anyone should turn down mechanical.
3) This is not something people wonder about, but truly the most frustrating thing post op has been my development of an allergy to Spinach. I used to eat spinach all the time pre-op. I have a hard time remembering if when I was a couple months pre-op, if the spinach salads I was having was causing me problems. But anyway post op I am so allergic to spinach that one little bite of something with spinach makes my throat close. This is a medical mystery and no one knows why this has happened. There were things I would eat pre-op that it is impossible for me to eat now. So I can only assume some switch flipped post op and I'm highly allergic to something now that maybe didn't really bother me before. I think and this is a wild guess it could be a cause of Warfarin. I'm fine with broccoli and other things with high contents of vitamin K however so it doesn't make sense.
4) Heart beating out of your chest - Yes this indeed does happen, it is not quite as bad as it was right after surgery. But the mechanical valve (at least mine) does seem to cause your heart to pound sometimes. This is related to a lot of other things too, like posture, how much caffeine I've had ,etc.. But there are times where I feel my chest pounding. But it doesn't really bother me.
Anyway happy ticking or moo-ing or oink-ing!!
