How Should I Feel

shop deals on amazon
Shop deals on ebay
Advertise with us
Valve Replacement Forums

Help Support Valve Replacement Forums:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
psalmist

psalmist

Well-known member
Joined
Jul 4, 2007
Messages
162
Location
Springfield, MO
Hey Folks! I am one month away from one year and all is well. I have begun exercising and losing some of that weight I gained through this process. I have been jog/walking about 2 miles each night and around 1 mile at lunch everyday. My question is that after times of, say running the whole 2 miles, I feel a little wiped out the next day. I have been doing sit ups and push ups with light weight curls to follow that up also. Is that normal. My wife has been asking what is wrong with me and thinks that I am depressed:(. I honestly don't feel that way... just drained. I am afraid if I don't push it (no pain no gain) that I won't progress and it is an excuse to be lazy but it takes a lot out of me. Is this normal. Shouldn't I be charging those mountains by now? Don't get me wrong, I feel good over all. If I push it I notice it the next day. Basically I want to get the best out of my work outs with out compromising quality of life. (lost 15 lbs so far!). :confused:
 
more details

more details

I am not sure what everyone else's experience was like but the whole road to discovery was a rocky one. I had not been myself for about 3 years. I believe this was due to deteriorating quality of life. I progressively became more miserable to be around. I felt lousy all the time toward discovery point. I blamed life and everyone else. I just didn't understand. I put my wife through hell. Not intentionally of course.... It was such a relief for me to find out that I had a health issue (though I wish I never had it of course!!). It just explained so many things for me and allowed me to accept it and forgive myself for all the trouble. Having the option of repair gave me hope that I could give my wife the husband she married not the miserable man I had become. I don't want to be over doing it and diminishing that quality that she was deprived. I really sincerely want to give her that....

( I apologize if I have been too personal, but you have all been through this battle and though circumstances differ you all have wisdom to offer....)
 
Seth,
I didn't start running until my kids went out for the cross country team in high school. I was 42 then. Luckily I trained with one of the top HS CC coaches in the state. If you are doing the same route everyday, you may be ready to shake this up some. First, if you are running 7 days a week, stop. The body needs rest at least one day a week. This could be why you are not recovering well. Once or twice a week, do sprints. It will burn the fat faster and make the long runs easier. SLOWLY, start adding some distance to your runs, no more than 10% total per week but have one 'long slow' day per week. Everybody progresses differently. Since I had never run before, it took over a year before I was 'comfortable' running. It was 3 years before I could run, without slow jogging, a 10K race. Some people are at that point in a year or so. Don't get discouraged and don't stop running. It's the best thing you can do. One good thing about slower progress, I had less injuries than those that progressed faster. Good luck.
 
Hi Seth.

I am no athlete, so I can only respond to my experience with picking up my activity level post surgery. I find that even at 2 years post, if I overdo things I am wiped out for a few days. And I don't just mean exercise. If I travel, for some reason that wipes me out for a day when I return. Not unbearably wiped out.... a few advil seem to do the trick, actually, even though I'm not technically sore anywhere.

Drained is the operative word here. It's almost as if the body is remembering what it felt like just after the surgery. Like it is going into a protective mode so that we will heal from this little bit of stress we've placed on it. I haven't figured out how to "educate" my body so that it knows that I liked spending 3 days moving furniture up and down stairs and around tight corners and lifting and then exercising on top of that....and just after a short vacation. But no. My body thinks I should rest. Really rest. And for several days!!! I tried coffee, extra vitamins, extra sleep...nothing was working. I guess my body is still in charge!! I overdid it.

So if others respond to you similarly, I would work very hard to not keep it personal, you know...just accept that your body is going to be talking to you this way for awhile and either respect it, dodge it, or find a way to re-educate it, but don't take it personally and don't let it frustrate you.

Maybe you should begin your efforts by being a little less jarring to your system and just start this new you with only walking for awhile. ??

Hope some of that made sense!

Marguerite
 
Hi Seth,

i know my body well and I know what I am capable of. As with any athletic sport it's not how much training you do it's how much you can recover from.

Pre surgery I could train as hard and as much as I could. Post surgery I wake up the next day felling very tired. I find i need a rest day after a day of higher intensity.
To become fitter and stronger you have to push a little (but not too much). With this surgery you need ample recovery from that effort for the body to rebuild.

Building a stronger more athletic body can be done below anaerobic threshold. But always remember the body becomes stronger in recovery. If you sacrifice recovery you become weaker.
 
I do have a new and better job with health insurance and life insurance!!! I sit at a desk all day so maybe I go from nothing to something to fast. Yeah I get a break now and then. I really notice the drag if I push it. Like lately I decided to time my mile pace. I ran it in 7min and 45 secs. A slow pace but hard enough for me. I used to run it in the 5's. After timing that and pushing hard to get that (pride won't let me run one over 8). I feel it for sure the next day. Just tired! I will keep running. I need to lose 15 more lbs! Thanks for the help!
 
No. I don't know anything about those. I would like to, but I am clueless. I wouldn't even now how to apply it if I did have one:).
 
Well Hi there Seth.
To me you sound normal to me. Its been 16 months for me and I too still find that if I have done a lot the previous day I too feel drained the following day.

It has been mentioned (by some professional) to me that "no pain no gain" is not the answer, to stop before I reach THAT point.
Keep up the exercising and maybe back off just a bit so you don't get to that "point". Maybe you won't feel has drained the following day - just a thought.

You know the saying "everyone heals differently" and being patient has to be practiced each and everyday.

You'll be charging at those mountains soon enough. Look how many mountains you've climbed already.
 
Seth you were sick for so long that I truly believe that it's a combo of things. Illness, surgery, age, general state of health and the list goes on. You may never be the 100% you were before, but who cares? Your alive and with your loved ones and that's all that matters in the end.
 
Seth,

you do not need to apologized for being personal as you said, speaking about me personally, I have been there and could never understand why I was changing from an extremely kind gentle understanding woman to a short-fused, easily agitated, impatient person! Now I know it was the deterioration in my leaky valves. I shall confirm this after I recover from my surgery which is on Tuesday. I hope I shall go back to what I used to be at least 7 years ago!

God bless. My message may be late but I just read it today.
 
Hey Dude ... it will get better ... give it time ... Try and remember that you are still in the recovery mode and that everyone is not the same ... I am walking three miles a day and it has been 2 1/2 years ... no way I could do what I do now at less than a year... Hand in there!!

 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Latest posts

Back
Top