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You didn't happen to get broad spectrum antibiotics after surgery? I did when I developed a fever immediately post-op. Sort of at the other end of things in my case, but it completely eliminated longstanding (30 years) gingivitis, which has a bacterial basis. There are some bacterial...

Just FYI, it's "ejection fraction". It's the fraction (expressed as percentage) of blood volume that the filled left ventricle chamber pumps out with each beat. So, in your case, 25 means that when the ventricle fills to a certain volume, it pumps out 1/4th of that amount when it contracts...

Numbers vs. symptoms....It is juggling act. You need to attend to both. BUT I don't think there is a "happy medium" where you can put things off if one of the two are OK. If either are bad, you need to respond. I had no discernible symptoms but evil things were going on inside my heart. I...

What I see a lot of here is personal bias about how things should be done. The fact is NONE of the variety of protocols have been throughly tested and proven to have better results than another, so, it's hard for me to criticize either a place that regards anything even marginally outside the...

I'll just add to the chorus here. Yes, they take it very slow at first, but you can get them to change the exercise level after a week or two once they are confident you're ready for it. Most of their clientele have serious underlying heart damage (post-MI or bypass) that makes exercise much...

Gary: I'm glad you're better. Rather than asking your EP about cutting this and doing that, ask him directly about your dizzy spells and inability to get your heart rate up during your morning walks. Those things need to be resolved, whether it involves cutting amiodarone, using dronedarone...

Hemolytic anemia happens with mechanical valves as RBCola described. It's almost always subclinical (not severe enough to be noticed), with only about 3% of mechanical valve patients developing moderate to severe anemia, as you appear to have. The On-X valves are claimed to be less prone to...

Glad things went well at Stanford. You can tell from my signature below that I am partial to that place. I fell in love with my surgeon (figuratively) during my initial consultation. I knew I was in the presence of greatness. I actually don't recall how large my ascending aorta was at...

My heart rate was elevated quite a bit post-op but nowhere near Peter's. I'd be asking the staff about that. SOME elevation is completely normal, even if it is annoying. I had to ask the doctors what they were going to do about it.

For an individual surgeon, this sounds like a very respectable number of valve replacements. After a certain number the skills are honed and it then just becomes repetitive. Let me also say that there are major advantages to staying fairly local and not travelling great distances unless you...

The value of Crestor in people with no family or personal history of coronary artery disease or strokes due to plaque formation is debatable. I had a good discussion with my cardiologist when he recommended treatment, essentially just based on the lab result numbers. So called, "treating the...

Interestingly, my cholesterol and triglycerides have been erratic, and at one point were high enough that my cardiologist suggested drug treatment. Treating high values with no family history of coronary heart disease or strokes due to plaque formation is controversial. My family history is...

I was expecting a click as well, but mine thumps mildly, almost like a regular heart sound but louder.

I think there is some misunderstanding. It may be his underlying medical condition that prohibits those things - not the beta blockers.

Yes. Beta blockers have long been used to reduce aniexty by blunting the physical manifestations of anxiety. I understand. When I first started reading package inserts when I entered pharmacy school, I was surprised anyone would take any of the meds after reading the laundry list of side...

That's not one paper - that's a consensus document. If you go back through the literature over decades, 65 has been the traditional, albeit somewhat arbitrary, cut-off. I'm, in fact, not in agreement with that cut-off, but that's what it has been. A tissue valve or a mechanical valve at...

Disagree all you want but 65 is the official cut-off in otherwise healthy patients: http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/118/15/e523.full.pdf (page e618) Although a number of good surgeons will recommend tissue valves in younger patients, that does not make Mom's choice somehow incorrect or even...

You mention a history of anxiety and it seems that worrying about health issues goes hand-in-hand with that and creates an endless loop. If you look hard enough you can find all kinds of scary things. Rather than thinking you can understand this better than your doctors if you just keep poking...

Gary: This description is the opposite of what I would expect from reducing the metoprolol dose. Personally I wouldn't be so sure these are directly related. Your rhythm issues must be more complex than appears on the surface. And, although amiodarone can be nasty stuff, MANY surgeons...

OK, so you have a valve that appears to be a bit deformed and an aortic root that is probably in the upper end of the normal range. Please try to go about your life and enjoy it without worrying about this. Regular annual physicals and "periodic" (maybe every 2-3 years unless something...