3 week update

[TheGymGuy]

It has been 3 weeks since my surgery. Here is a - 1 week update. And, here is a - 2 week update.

It's worth repeating that I am an optimist and you will see me share more good things than bad. I will be honest about bad things, but they will simply not drag me down or worry me unless it is something that you guys and gals have not written about. This is exactly same sentence I used before, but felt that I need to state it for those that do not know me.

Ok, so in keeping my tradition, here are the good things and things that improved.

• My resting heart-rate mid-day while sitting up is around 68 (resting heart-rate has been sub 70 for over a week now) and blood-pressure is around 117 / 67 (I think we are trending 113-121 / 63-73 for a week now as well).
• My feet and hands are less cold and I am taking 12.5 mg of Metoprolol and 100mg of Amiodarone daily. I wonder if less of these drugs is stabilizing my pulse and cold extremities feeling.
• I am in virtually no pain and have been off pain killers (Tylenol 3) for 11 full days now. I think I can close the chapter on pain killers and not even mention it anymore.
• The numbness from my middle, pointy and thumb fingers on my right hand is gone and I can feel them all 100%.
• Incisions are healing up nicely and here is a shot of them - 3 week picture
• I have very little tightness in the sternum and after waking up in the AM I just get off the bed and go about my business.
• The bump at the very top of my main chest incision is almost gone.
• I sleep on my side every night and often flip to the other side. I have been getting 7-8 cumulative hours of sleep nightly.
• I went back to work remotely last week and after 1 week of working remotely I am way less bored. I am not sure that I was cleared to go back to work (I did not really ask), but I have a desk job and try to minimize the stress. Working from home office gives me lots of freedoms like taking short walks and eating on good schedule. It also keeps me occupied most of the time which is really good.
• Physically, I am feeling decent and have been putting on serious miles or walking time 3-4 times a week. On weekends we walk around malls and outside for 2-3 hours and then some, and on week-days I put in 3-4 miles at least twice a week. There are a bunch of short leisurely walks which I do not even count.

Not so great things:

• Some numbness left around the scars, but it progresses. A bit annoying actually, but we must be patient.
• Range of motion in my right hand is about 85-90%, so need to keep on working on that.
• Night sweats while way less, still happen. I change a shirt every other night around 3am, some nights are worse than others. I think cutting amiodarone has helped reduce them, but it might just be my body.
• This one is new. I have been getting a bit of a headaches daily and they always seem to happen around mid-day. I fight them when I can, but if they get bad I pop 1 tylenol extra strength and it seems to help them out. I noticed that amiodarone has headaches as a side-effect, so here is to hoping I can get off it in 1 more week.
• My body is eating up my lean body mass like nobody's business and since I cannot workout at all this is just something that will happen. I am going to ask to use baby dumbbells and see when I am allowed to use them.

I have my cardiologist appointment later today and will update this thread in the evening.


I sincerely hope everyone is doing well or improving daily. Will post more later.

 

[Bill B]

Hi Vadim:

12.5mg of metoprolol is probably not doing anything. I always questioned why you were put on amiodarone. That is a drug with a laundry list of common side effects, and unless you had some rhythm disturbances, it appears it was purely prophylactic. I don't think too many valve surgeons do that. I would see if you can get tapered off/stop that soon, but, of course, always do what your cardiologist says to do. Otherwise, it sounds like you continue to do remarkably well over all. Glad to hear that!

 

[Mentu]

I thought I recovered well but in the future I am going to point people to your posts as a shining example of what is possible. It would be very interesting to know why the night sweats take place around 3:00 AM. I can only speculate that it may have something to do with sleep cycles but many of us seem to be on that schedule. I now notice them once a week or so as the frequency has fallen and when they do happen now it is nothing like the bed drenchings of the early months. We all have our own collection of other minor issues but most seem to go away on their own. I hope all continues to go well.

Larry

 

[TheGymGuy]

Bill, I have my cardiologist appointment today and will try really hard to make a case to get taken off amiodarone. You are right about the reason for it, it was prophylactic and my surgeon felt it was a good idea. Funny thing is that I did not have nor experience any heart rhythm disturbances, to my knowledge, but initially I was also on high amiodarone doze and lately I am on 25% of that and still fine, so here is to hoping to get taken off of it.

Larry, your messages on recovery has helped me a lot, I am not sure I ever really thanked you in person. Thank You!!! My night sweats are through the night and it seems that one of my sleep cycles ends around 3am-ish which is when I get up and if too sweaty change my t-shirt. Ever since I cut down on amiodarone the night sweats have been more manageable though.

 

[dhudson]

Man it sounds like there are more positives than negatives. Hey I sweat all night long, even with an air conditioner and fan going directly on me. I was actually hoping against hope, it would help me to lose weight!:rolleyes2::rolleyes2:But I guess not. Hang in there, your doing really well!!!

 

[TheGymGuy]

Back from the Cardiologist. Everything went well, EKG was good, BP was 128/72, pulse 72, lungs are clear and heart is ticking (loudly). He wanted to know if it bothers me (my answer was not really), and then he told me that most people's brain adapts and zones it out for the most part. We will still keep my INR at 2-2.5.

Stopping Amiodarone right now, that means no more of that drug unless we have issues, and stopping Metoprolol within a week. I might cheat and stop it this weekend

Also, wife and I went to Cheesecake Factory to have a little nice meal and I had a good half of my wife's Margarita (love tequila) with sliders and avocado eggrolls. Mmmmmmmm...... Nice not have to worry about competition weight for once and live it up a little bit. I figured alcohol in Margarita cancelled out the Vit. K in avocado eggrolls. Just kidding about alcohol vs Vit. K, but thought you guys would enjoy it anyways.

Dhudson, I wish sweating at night made us loose weight, unfortunately, the only things that can help are the tough choices of eating well and clean as well as exercising. Energy Out > Energy In is the magic formula of loosing weight. Not an easy feat, but a very simple one.

 

[spartangator]

Great to hear all around. Thanks for documenting all this. As you point out, others will enjoy having the details of at least one example of what to expect.

 

[Sarah_Louise]

Glad to hear how well your recovering
love Sarah xxx

 

[dcc617]

Excellent news! What's the word about lifting? (reminds me - I need to complete the paperwork for rehab)

 

[TheGymGuy]

I have started bodyweight squats, lunges, reverse lunges, and 30 second spirnt-walks. In several days (week 4, I believe) I will be doing weighted leg curls, leg extensions, and some leg mobility work.
Once I hit 6 weeks, I will do 1-2 days at Cardiac Rehab, though, by that time I should be back in my office which means I will be able to actually hit the gym and rehab in the gym alongside my powerlifting team.
Here goes to hoping

 

[Ovie]

Hi Vadim:

12.5mg of metoprolol is probably not doing anything. I always questioned why you were put on amiodarone. That is a drug with a laundry list of common side effects, and unless you had some rhythm disturbances, it appears it was purely prophylactic. I don't think too many valve surgeons do that. I would see if you can get tapered off/stop that soon, but, of course, always do what your cardiologist says to do. Otherwise, it sounds like you continue to do remarkably well over all. Glad to hear that!

I too am on 12.5 mg of metoprolol. You're saying this has no effect? Why would my Cardiologist keep me on it if it's just something to take without effect?

 

[Ovie]

Btw glad to hear everything is going good Gymguy! I don't need to tell you, but keep up the good work!

 

[Bill B]

I too am on 12.5 mg of metoprolol. You're saying this has no effect? Why would my Cardiologist keep me on it if it's just something to take without effect?

Well, that is a general statement. It's a very small dose. Sure, you could be quite sensitive to it, but, in general, that dose is not enough to do much of anything give once a day. If you were given that without experiencing a larger dose having too much effect, then I'm not sure why you were given it. Beta blockers are so beneficial in so many cardiovascular conditions that they are given sometimes post-op based on some general feeling that they might help somehow. But it would be better if you had something specific to treat like high blood pressure, tachycardia or other rhythm disturbances or mild heart failure. In those cases, your dose is very low, unless it was shown that higher doses had adverse affects. But, I'm not your doctor (or anybody's doctor ), and you could have good reason to be on this. I always question medication use to make sure it is well-founded, because that is my training as a pharmacist, but I do exactly what my doctors tell me too do as well. At you next doctor visit, you could ask for how long and for what reason you are on this. My cardiologist is a smart guy and we have had some good talks about this.