9 days post op

[big_L]

Well it's been nine days and overall I feel surprisingly well. I'm sleeping as well as before surgery and even managed to stay in the bed all night last night. My appetite is great, it returned day 2-3 after surgery. My stamina isn't that great, but I'm working on it. Tylenol only for pain, since maybe 3 days post surgery, although I have taken an oxy on occasion at bedtime. More for sleep than pain.

A couple of issues:

- Lung pain. One spot on the right side that gives me a sharp pain with doing the spirometer/yawning/taking a full breath. My guess is it's a spot where a few alveoli haven't quite gotten back to normal and that it'll work itself out with time. It's certainly not unbearable or anything.


- Hypertension/high blood pressure. This runs in my family. I managed to stay off the meds until 6 years ago (47). Since then I've been well controlled with ACE inhibitor/HCTZ. Maybe even over controlled the past year, with results typically 110/70. BP was 121/80 at discharge. Since then it's been ~135/90. I have searched the site and found a lot of similar stories. Also, it makes perfect sense from a hydraulics standpoint - no more restriction across valve and we're building more flow/pressure. They discharged me at 7.5 mg of Metoprolol twice per day. Their instructions at discharge were to stay on it 4 weeks, then work with local cardio to see what needs to be done. I have an appt anyway with my cardio on Tuesday. We'll certainly discuss it then.

Any comments?

 

[dg_moore]

Hypertension/high blood pressure. This runs in my family. I managed to stay off the meds until 6 years ago (47). Since then I've been well controlled with ACE inhibitor/HCTZ. Maybe even over controlled the past year, with results typically 110/70. BP was 121/80 at discharge. Since then it's been ~135/90. I have searched the site and found a lot of similar stories. Also, it makes perfect sense from a hydraulics standpoint - no more restriction across valve and we're building more flow/pressure. They discharged me at 7.5 mg of Metoprolol twice per day. Their instructions at discharge were to stay on it 4 weeks, then work with local cardio to see what needs to be done. I have an appt anyway with my cardio on Tuesday. We'll certainly discuss it then.

Any comments?

I have struggled with moderate hypertension for several years, and have not found any medication that I tolerate well. My quality of life has been generally very poor due to feeling so lousy because of the meds. Post surgery I was sent home on a boatload of meds, which kept my BP and heart rate low, but which made me feel awful. Those meds were prescribed for a month, after which I was to discontinue them and follow my cardiologist's orders. My BP and heart rate are elevated since discontinuing the surgeon's meds, so my cardiologist wrote me a script for Coreg CR, even though I have had bad reactions (quality of life, not life threatening) to it in the past. I am extremely reluctant to start taking this stuff because I'm afraid it will make me feel even worse. If I were told "take nothing and you'll feel well for five years, or take this med and you'll feel lousy for ten", I'd take the five in a heartbeat (so to speak). I wish I could find something that works (I've followed all dietary recommendations for years)!

 

[dg_moore]

[Accidental duplicate post - deleted]

 

[Cococat]

Hi Big L, sorry to hear you are having some issues but they sound manageable. Not having hypertension, I really cannot comment.
However, I was wondering if you felt the relaxation book and tapes helped you?

Keep up a positive attitude. I am convinced that helps, also.

 

[big_L]

The book didn't help much, but the tapes did. I loaded the mp3s onto a small player and listened to them every night after the light was out and I was trying to sleep. Then again at 3-4 am, when I was typically awake again.

I'd say that until a few days before surgery, they really helped and I could quiet my mind to a noticeable degree. After that, I don't know how much they helped, as the anxiety was fairly high. they certainly didn't hurt.

 

[dave1939]

I'm due for my valve replacement on September 11 and have been reading this forum since I found out about it. My experience with bp may be useful. I was experiencing very high bp about 5 years ago. I tried at least 10 different medications of almost every type. None worked and most gave me severe side effects.
Coincidentally, I was experiencing some cardiac problems. As a result of this I radically changed my diet. I eliminated meat, dairy and salt. The effects were life changing. In addition to losing weight and feeling so much better, my bp was lowered to an average of 110/70, without meds. I believe the bp reduction came form the elimination of salt. At first, I thought it would be impossible to follow such a diet. However, the feedback was quite rapid and I now no longer miss the food I ate for the first 70 years of my life.
There has been a number of articles recently that state that salt and bp are unrelated. However, for me it worked.
PS, I also found that when I gave up salt the food started to taste better.

 

[tom in MO]

There are lots of blood pressure medications. They have different side effects. If the ones you are on now are not right for you, your cardio should be able to find one that work better for you.

 

[big_L]

Interestingly enough, by BP dropped to ~120/80 this morning. I checked it again, then they checked it again at my cardiologists appt today. All the results were good. The cardio said it's just an artifact of the surgery.

 

[big_L]

Amazing, the chest/lung pain is gone today. I'm pulling 2000 cc on the spirometer like there's nothing to it.

BP was 120/84 this am.