Today is one month.
I had my post-op meeting with the surgeon this past Friday. I had a chest X-ray and a cardiogram and he told me everything looked really good.
Pain-wise, I have some stiffness/discomfort in my shoulders and upper-back still, but nothing that isn't manageable with Tylonol. I could easily go back to work, but I'm not "officially" cleared to drive yet, so that makes it problematic. I'll put in another week and then make a decision.
While my heart isn't beating fast, it is certainly beating strong. I'm taking 7.5 mg/day of Bisoprolol to calm it down, from 2.5 mg/pre-surgery. The surgeon said it would take time for my heart to figure out that it doesn't need to work so hard from the pre-surgery days when half of the blood would regurgitate back into my heart. The surgeon doesn't figure I'll be on the Bisoprolol longer than a few months, and I have a follow-up meeting with the cardiologist in Feb. so hopefully he will take me off then. However, the surgeon did say that if the heartbeat was still really strong a month from now to call him.
I can sometimes hear the valve "click". I doesn't bother me. It reminds me that this all went really well. I actually think it is kinda cool. The surgeon reminded me that "if you don't hear the click, you have a problem"!
INR at last test was 2.3 and I'm taking 3.5 mg/day. So far, I can't see what the big fuss is about with taking Warfarin/Coumadin. Other than having to take a couple of pills everyday, it hasn't changed my living/eating/lifestlye at all. The Nursing Coordinator at the Ottawa Heart Institute came to see me while I was still in the hospital and we had a conversation about home testing (she approached me about it as apparently I'm an excellent candidate), so at some point fairly soon we will look into that.
Other than that, everything is pretty much back to normal. I'm eating as well as I was before, sleeping as well as I was before, etc. My scar is healing nicely and since I'm a pretty hairy guy, in a couple of weeks you probably won't even see it LOL.
I'm very, very, thankful that I didn't have any serious complications. It wasn't a pleasent experience by any means, but if I had do it again I could, and would not be devistated by the news.
