6 month follow up appointment

[RTZdad]

I had my six month follow-up appointment today. I had an echo done last Friday too. Happy to report that everything checked out just fine. My cardiologist told me to come back and see him in a year. My INR levels are still up and down, but other than that, things are going well. He has decided to keep me on my 50 mg of Metropolol once a day, along with a baby aspirin and multivitamin. I take 12.5 mg of Coamadin 4 times a week and 15 the other three while we continue to try and get my system to level out. I screwed up my ankle a while back and it kept me out of commission for two weeks. The lack of exercise during that time seems to have had an effect on my INR levels. My diet stayed pretty much the same. Wish I had the time to comment and post on the site as much as I used to...just doesn't seem to be enough time in a day, you know? I peruse the site as often as I can, and still keep all of you my thoughts and prayers every day.

Tom

 

[CarolM]

Sounds like great 6-month news! Hope the coming year is positive and (medically)uneventful.

Carol

 

[epstns]

It would be nice to see you around here more, but doing what you've just done has incredible value for the many folks still in The Waiting Room. To hear yet another valver come back and say that not only are you doing so well in your recovery, but to also hear that the enormous gravity of the valve replacement experience soon seems to drift back into "just another life experience" makes it easier for others to realize that for them, this too shall pass.

Thanks for visiting again, and I'm glad you're doing so well.

 

[Jkm7]

Happy to hear you are doing well and happy you dropped by to share with us. All best wishes.




Steve...... Well said.

 

[TheGymGuy]

RTZDad, you better get back to exercising and get that INR back in order.

 

[RTZdad]

RTZDad, you better get back to exercising and get that INR back in order.

I'm back to exercising (cardio only) the past two weeks. Hopefully that helps. My INR is at 2.8 right now and I'm checking it once a week on my Coaguchek.

 

[Fundy]

Good to hear your doing well. I'm kind of interested as to why your staying on metoprolol though.

 

[RTZdad]

My cardiologist said that he would keep me on it since I don't have any problems with it. He said that he would hate to take me off of it and see my blood pressure go up and wonder why he did so. I didn't really think anything of it until your reply. Now I wonder...

 

[Fundy]

The reason I asked was that my family doctor told me he thought it was a very good idea to take metoprolol for rest of my life. It didn't seem to bother me much, unless it was the reason my throat was staying sort of sore. I noticed most people here seemed to stop taking it within a month or so unless they had high blood pressure, which I didn't.

Anyway when I seen my cardiologist at nine months(2,5 months ago) for my first echo and a visit. She mentioned I didn't need to take the metoprolol anymore. So I stopped taking them. Since I never really seem to come across anyone mentioning same sort of opinion my family doctor had regarding its long term benefit.

Its hard to say if I feel better after stopping the drug, because I stopped taking it or because its 11.5 months of healing instead of nine.