Recovery: What is "overdoing it"? How soon is too soon? I am 2 weeks post-op.

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Les Hazelton

Member
Joined
Mar 13, 2012
Messages
20
Location
Minnesota
Recovery: What is "overdoing it"? How soon is too soon? I am 2 weeks post-op.

I am looking to challenge myself but wondering what happens when one over-reaches. Will my body warn me before I set myself up for a serious setback?

On April 25 I had surgery for my ascending aortic aneurism and bi-cuspid valve replacement (collectively, the Bentall Procedure). My age is 56 and I went in symptom-free which I realize is an advantage. I have thus far experienced no serious bumps in the road. That is to say, nothing that I consider too serious in light of how well prepared I felt after lurking here for the past several weeks. My thanks to all you contributors, great and small. I think the known bumps were more easily endured because of this forum. At least for me. I know there are some who experience more complications and my heart goes way out to you.

I am feeling so well, nearly forgetting my limitations even, at times. So I am wondering with all of the wise advice to take it easy, what is too much? Listen to the body? Dr. said today my lungs are clear, heart sounds good. I am able to walk for several blocks. Do stairs, etc. Of course I have odd moments of back or shoulder pain that surge for about 90 seconds and rival the night two discomfort for a minute or two, and the legs burn after a ridiculously short walk, and a short bout of A-Fib that won me a 30-day supply of Amiodarone, which it would have been nice to avoid altogether.

For those in the waiting room who are reading the Post Surgery section as I did, maybe sizing yourself up, in hopes you will have what it takes to come through, I can say as many others have, that I was fortunate and found it all very do-able. IMPORTANT NOTE: I am NOT a thrill seeker. I do not consider myself strong.

Thanks in advance for any replies.

Les
Duluth, MN
 
P.S. I had round the clock help in the hospital room from my significant other and I strongly believe this played a huge role in my early recovery at the hospital. I was double-fortunate.
 
Les, what a great summary. Practice caution initially, and do what feels right. You WILL know if you are overdoing it right away. Like you, I was completely asymptomatic before hand, and around same time as you I felt that I could do most anything. Heck, I went back to work full time after week 2 (from home). Ok, so the answer to your question from me, and I am a fitness nut, is to challange yourself a little bit every day. It should be small steps forward or 2 steps forward, 1 step back. Checkout the Exercise forum here for things people do post surgery and make your own plans. My gut feel tells me that every time I should either do a tiny bit more or same as before. I only reduce physical load/demand if my body asks me to.
 
Les - I'm glad you're feeling so good, so soon. I was more of a basket case after surgery, having some complications in and after surgery. I took things easy (at least easy compared to my usual), and was back to work from home, a couple of hours at a time, after week 2. I was back to work part-time after about 4 weeks, and full-time at 6 weeks. Full-time here means 50-60 hours a week in a fast-paced office. I was walking from the time I came home, stairs included. I didn't start cardiac rehab until 3 months after surgery, due to the complications. By that time I was in rehab 3 days a week, and in the gym the other 2. By the end of rehab, the only reason I wasn't running again was that my knees hurt too much. I'm trying to get back to it now, at 14 months post-op. (BTW, I'm 64 years old - a couple of years older than you are.)

Basically, my surgeon kept me on a short leash for the first 4 weeks, then said something like "If it feels good, do it."
 
I am about your age and had my surgery on 2/24. I found when I "pushed it" that the only side effect was I'd fall asleep in front of the TV for an extra 2 hours :) Once I got dizzy in a store (4 weeks) after about 4 hours of being up and about. Since it was a thrift store, I just sat in some furniture that was for sale for a few minutes and was fine. I stuck to walking at home and was ready for re-hab therapy at 4 weeks, I had about 2 weeks of extra naps after starting therapy. I went back to full time work at 8 weeks and didn't need any naps (except on the weekend.)

I did stay within my restrictions as to lifting. At about 3 weeks, I found I was pushing it a bit and cut out pain meds during the day so I'd feel the pain before I did something stupid.
 
Like you and others, I went into surgery symptom free and had a pretty active lifestyle prior to surgery. Both my surgeon and cardiologist did not feel I needed cardiac rehab, so they just said to use some common sense. I knew I was pushing it too hard at the end of week 1 (5 days post op) when I realized that I was taking 3 naps a day (about an hour each time). I was also doing 3X 30 minute walks a day, so decided to scale it back to 1 walk a day and my body seemed to adjust well to that (I was down to 2 naps for the next week and then 1 nap a day by the 3rd week).
 
You'll know if you over do it. Watch the lifting and arm raising restrictions, if any, the first few weeks. If you over do it, you'll be tired, dizzy, maybe sore. You will sleep more for a while - let yourself. You won't be able to work for a few weeks, so don't try, or try things in very tiny batches. You'll know.
 
I had bump free recovery two times in four years and believe it was because I strictly followed my surgeon and nurses' instructions. They set out what walking they wanted me to do and I did it. I got up each morning from day one home, showered, dressed, walked up and down stairs, made my breakfast and was active throughout the day. I walked, did laundry though I had DH carry the heavy basket, I washed the dishes, set the table, cooked simple meals for DH and myself and napped briefly but when needed.

I did not feel a need to 'baby and coddle' myself or have people tending to me hand and foot.
I know I was blessed to not require assistance and am hugely grateful.
I think state of mind and push to recover smoothly and on pace are a factor.

Lollilng in bed and spending the day sitting and not moving around is not helpful IMO unless you are absolutely unable to manage a lot of movement.
It is very important to not lift, push, pull more weight than what you were instructed. That is non-negotiable to good healing of your sternum, if you had full sternotomy, and it's not worth risking a less than good healing first time through.
 

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