First Post-Surgery Followup With Surgeon

[ajc1991]

Hi all, I am a 23 year old male and I had my surgery on January 15th of this year to have my severely regurgitating bicuspid aortic valve replaced with a St. Jude mechanical valve. I had my first post surgery followup with my surgeon and it went very well!

The nurse practitioner of course had a look at my incision and there is no sign of infection. She also removed the sutures from the chest tube sites.

They are starting to wean me off of the beta blocker Metoprolol to two times a day instead of three. I was taking 100 mg Metoprolol three times a day, now it's just two and she's going to start weaning me slowly off of those. She also had me stop taking the low dose aspirin daily since my INR is up to 3.4 from the Coumadin. She says I can start building up my walking and still suggests that I don't run for at least 2 more months so the sternum can heal.

I also had a followup with my cardiologist and primary physician and both of those visits went very good as well.

All in all I feel great. I'm really surprised I feel this good this early. Everyone's experiance with this surgery is different and people will face different struggles. With this in mind, I wasn't sure how I would feel at this point in time. I'm glad to say I don't feel like I had the surgery. I just have a slight soreness from the sternum when I get in and out of bed.

I know not to overdue it with the sternum, even if I feel this good. I'm still taking GREAT care.

 

[skeptic49]

Congratulations on your excellent recovery! Sounds like you're doing great. Did you have a full median sternotomy or a mini? Best wishes for a continued smooth recovery.

 

[river-wear]

Congratulations on a smooth recovery! You're doing exceptionally well. I imagine your young age is helping, but I was lucky at twice your age too. It's also good to hear you're able to taper off the Metoprolol.

 

[ajc1991]

Congratulations on your excellent recovery! Sounds like you're doing great. Did you have a full median sternotomy or a mini? Best wishes for a continued smooth recovery.

I had a mini-sternotomy, think that may have helped too, along with my age.

 

[Eva]

Congratulations again on your recovery, and on being wise not to rush it! Continue taking GREAT care of yourself so all continues well!

 

[cldlhd]

Congratulations! Good to hear

 

[epstns]

Ahhh. . . to be young again.

You are, indeed, doing well. Your age obviously is an advantage, but you are probably also just doing well over-all. Just keep on doing what they tell you to do, and maybe just a little bit more. I found that once I felt that I could push my limits just a bit, I began to recover even more quickly (and I'm a good bit older than you). But do be careful about stressing your sternum. My general rule was that if it hurt to do something, I'd wait a week or two and try it again. Some activities (push-ups, anyone?) didn't feel good until nearly a year out. Others (walking, biking) were fine much sooner.

At your age, I'm not sure if they will recommend cardiac rehab. If they do recommend it, take them up on it. This program not only accelerates your re-entry to normal physical activity, but it also improves your self-confidence by pushing you harder in a supervised environment, so that you know you can do more and not "break."

Keep after them on the metoprolol dosage. Immediately after my valve surgery, I was taking (IIRC) 100 mg/day of the time-release metoprolol. It made me feel like I was towing a sled full of rocks all day. Although I went through 12 weeks of cardiac rehab at that dosage, I just didn't feel "right." Over time, working with my cardiologist, we cut my dosage in half, then months later, in half again. I now take 25 mg/day and feel much more normal. I still cannot get my heart rate up beyond the mid 140's, but I guess I can accept that if it keeps me away from afib. Prior to valve surgery I was a runner/jogger and regularly ran at heart rates in the 160's (even when I was in my early 60's).