R
Ron K
Hi All,
I just wanted to say that my recovery has been going nicely and I'm feeling great!
One of the earliest responses I got to a question I posted about what to expect during the recovery period was from a nice guy from "down under" telling me that 6 months after he had his valve replacement, he won his first competative tennis tournament, and he was only a couple of years younger than me. That post was one of the ones that helped me keep a positive attitude going into the surgery.
Well, last night I entered and won a local bowling tournament, which meant more to me emotionally than the prize money did.
I was bowling in 2 or 3 leagues before my surgery and carrying a decent average. I returned to bowling about 8 weeks after surgery and I have been doing better than ever. In fact, my average is up by about 10 pins from where it was. Another first for me was finishing with an final average over 200 in a summer league that ended last week.
I'm not bragging, but just trying to encourage others that are starting their climb up the mountain that there are a lot of success stories to focus on.
I went through a cardio-rehab program for about 8 weeks, took a few weeks off, then joined the local YMCA. My wife and I work out about 3 times a week. The only restriction I have is not to lift too much, so they set up a program for me that skips the bench presses and a few of the other nautilus machines. I do all the leg, lower back, abdominal, and some arm exercises, plus a lot of walking on the tread mills.. I really feel good when I've finished working out.
The only negative I have to mention is that I am on medication for hypertension now, but it's relatively low dosage. However, I never had high blood pressure until about 3 months before my surgery.
Also, my mitral valve is leaking at a mild to moderate level, but the cardiologist doesn't seem very concerned about that at all. He doubts that it will ever require another surgery. I do wish that the surgeon had repaired that while I was on the table for the aortic valve replacement, but the TEE at the time of the operation didn't show that the mitral valve required any attention.
I don't have any more memory lapses than I did before the surgery, at least none that I remember.
Best of all, I feel that my religous faith has been strenghtened, as has my appreciation of life in general. It's a wonderful feeling.
Thanks again to all of you who helped me along the way.
I just wanted to say that my recovery has been going nicely and I'm feeling great!
One of the earliest responses I got to a question I posted about what to expect during the recovery period was from a nice guy from "down under" telling me that 6 months after he had his valve replacement, he won his first competative tennis tournament, and he was only a couple of years younger than me. That post was one of the ones that helped me keep a positive attitude going into the surgery.
Well, last night I entered and won a local bowling tournament, which meant more to me emotionally than the prize money did.
I was bowling in 2 or 3 leagues before my surgery and carrying a decent average. I returned to bowling about 8 weeks after surgery and I have been doing better than ever. In fact, my average is up by about 10 pins from where it was. Another first for me was finishing with an final average over 200 in a summer league that ended last week.
I'm not bragging, but just trying to encourage others that are starting their climb up the mountain that there are a lot of success stories to focus on.
I went through a cardio-rehab program for about 8 weeks, took a few weeks off, then joined the local YMCA. My wife and I work out about 3 times a week. The only restriction I have is not to lift too much, so they set up a program for me that skips the bench presses and a few of the other nautilus machines. I do all the leg, lower back, abdominal, and some arm exercises, plus a lot of walking on the tread mills.. I really feel good when I've finished working out.
The only negative I have to mention is that I am on medication for hypertension now, but it's relatively low dosage. However, I never had high blood pressure until about 3 months before my surgery.
Also, my mitral valve is leaking at a mild to moderate level, but the cardiologist doesn't seem very concerned about that at all. He doubts that it will ever require another surgery. I do wish that the surgeon had repaired that while I was on the table for the aortic valve replacement, but the TEE at the time of the operation didn't show that the mitral valve required any attention.
I don't have any more memory lapses than I did before the surgery, at least none that I remember.
Best of all, I feel that my religous faith has been strenghtened, as has my appreciation of life in general. It's a wonderful feeling.
Thanks again to all of you who helped me along the way.
