Three Month Post-Op Update

[TomG]

To All,

My name is Tom Guilfoyle and I want to give all of you my three month post-op update as it had been exactly three months to the day (surgery date 9/13/12) that I had my open heart surgery for the repair of my Class 4 Barlow's Disease Mitral Valve. My cardiac surgeon Dr. Weiss of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, Pa gave me just about a perfect bill of health from my last visit with him on 12/10/12. I told him I still have some pain on the upper part of my incision and I still get a little tired out especially if I do a bit much and he says I am still in the recovery stage but I will be better then I was before I had the surgery and I can see that I have come a long way in recovering from this surgery. Just this morning I listen to my heart with my own stehoscope (sp) and it sounds so normal, like a hear should sound like as before the surgery it sounded like a whish of a washer machine. I am so happy that I made the decision to get it done and for "ANYONE" facing a similar ordeal do not be afraid and just go do it! If you need any type of moral support you can leave me a message here as I am a registered user here and I will be more then happy to talk to you. This message base (website) means so much to me as it REALLY helped me out in making my decision as I was able to communicate with others that have similar situations that I can relate to. I thank God for finding the website!

TomG
Collingdale, PA

 

[tgmorris]

Hey, Tom. I'm Tom as well and also just finished my 3 month post-op visit with my cardio. I too had a clean bill of health, other than my heavily calcified BAV, based on my pre-op cath and am doing well enough at this point that my cardio said to come back in a year. I'm about to complete 24 sessions of cardiac rehab and feel pretty good for the most part. Going up a flight of stairs is no problem but doing 2 flights at once leaves my legs aching for a bit as well as a bit winded. I'm guessing it's the difference between endurance and strength training as I can easily do the 60 minutes of rehab - though I do break a pretty good sweat. As noted elsewhere, everybody recovers at their own rate but as long as forward progress is made then the speed of recovery is a bit less important.

I agree 100% that this forum is a valuable asset and I found it about a month after my surgery when I was looking for a few additional answers.

 

[TomG]

Hi there Tom,

This website is truely a blessing and I am glad that I found it about a month before my surgery as it helped me out a lot, as it was a great additional to all the research that I was doing with my Class 4 Barlow's Disease MVP.

Yes I too am making forward progress, slow but sure, One of the big things I noticed is when I wake up in the morning I now feel so rested as before my OHS I always noticed when I woke up that I still was so so tired and hard to get motivated and it felt like I never went to bed.

Always remember what I was told do what you can but if you get tired take a break to recooperate then move on, otherwise if you don't you will get too tired and when you finally take a break it is so hard for your body to play catch up to get rested.

Mitral Valve repaired on 09/13/12 by Dr. Steven Weiss of Mercy Fitzgerald Hospital in Darby, PA

 

[TheGymGuy]

A very good 3 month post-op message. Very happy that things are going well. As you exercise more your heart will adapt to it more and the tiredness will be less and less. Keep up the good job.