Blood pressure 9 months after surgery

[sensei Ade]

Folks,
A couple of weeks ago I was getting fuzzy-headedness and my heart 'thumps' were stronger than usual, even though the heart rate + rhythm is normal. I went to see my surgeon who said that my bp is a bit high at present. My readings have hovered around 145 - 160/75 - 90. I've found that the stronger the thump, the higher the bp. Kind of makes sense, so I'm working on this blood pressure issue to get the readings down. I'm quite an active person, but it's worth noting that my surgeon said that good exercise is not an issue here, it's more the stresses + strains of daily life etc. Admittedly I've had a lot on my plate so this is a factor too. But have any of you had high blood pressure as an issue to deal with at my sort of stage of recovery? I know the heart takes a while to remodel, this could be the issue here. Not sure.

sensei

 

[epstns]

Sensei, I probably can't address the BP issue directly, because I had high BP prior to valve surgery (like 150/100) and took an angiotensin receptor II blocker for it. After surgery my BP remained high, so I am now taking a beta blocker (metoprolol) for it. I hope to some day get away from the BB and get back to something with fewer side effects, though.

 

[sensei Ade]

Cheers Steve,
Yes, in 95% of cases the cause of high bp can't even be determined. I'm on bisoprolol bb, 1.25mg. It appears to calm things down well but isn't that effective when it comes to bp. Thing is if the dose is increased, then I start to feel quite wonky as my heart rate is down to around 50bpms even on the minimum dose. It's even been as low as 40bpms! I hope to get way from the bbs too someday and just be on the anti-coagulants, that's all. We'll see how it goes eh.

Take care

sensei

 

[Rocky]

My BP is around the 127/77 level. BPM is right around 70. I take two kinds of meds for it to be there. I had higher numbers than that before surgery when i was not on meds. I started taking metoprolol but found the side effects to be way to much. The Dr moved me over to Bisoprolol ( 2.5 mg a day )

7 months out I am noticing that I am feeling better each and every month. I am not the kind of person who waits around for recovery though. I tend to over do it, to see where the edge of the envelope is. I just spend ten days in Vancouver moving my daughter there so she can go to school. I did not have a car and as she lives in the center of the city I walked everywhere. By the end of the 10 days I noticed that i was losing my energy much sooner in the days walks. So I took more breaks and more cabs to get around.

Right now I would say that I have about the same physical ability I had a year before the surgery, and no where near the ability of two years before surgery. I am going to join a gym next month and hire a personal trainer to get me back to what I could do three years ago where I had no issues with physical exercise at all. Of course, I was 56 then, and I will be 60 in Feb. This has to be factored into it. Also what has to be factored in is that for 12 months I have done very little.

I think it takes more than time for just the heart to remodel. I also thinks the body has to adapt to what the heart is doing. I certainly feel like my body shut down, not only because the heart was no longer working properly, but also to compensate for the heart issues so it would not over tax the heart. Add to that age, add to that stress, etc.

When I try to describe to others how the process went I explain it this way. Physically, i was on a decline for about two years, and the closer I got to the surgery, the steeper the decline. After surgery, the recovery stayed flat for a while, but then started to move up, and the further I get away from surgery the steeper the incline.

My emotional curves have mirror my physical one.

Going to the gym will push the physical, which will push the emotional, which will push the physical, etc, etc. Hiring the trainer will make sure that it stays in balance with the outcome being a seasons pass at the ski hill and skiing 60 days this winter.

Next fall I have my eyes on climbing a 16,000 mountain in Indonesia.