Home from TAVR

[tom in MO]

Per your articles on anemia, anemia's a common problem in the elderly severely at risk patients that used to be the only ones to get TAVRs. You are not that type of patient. Make sure you are eating right. That's just a good practice for any recovery.

Per aches and pains, make sure you are distracted by life and not too focused on your recovery. Get up and about. Movement helps in a lot of ways. At week two, you should be able to start cardiac rehab soon. That may help. The nurses are a good source of information as well.

When it comes to doctors, if you like chiropractors, then I'd suggest you go to an osteopathic doctor. Chiropractors cannot give a full spectrum of care, but osteopaths can. I had to get a new doctor and he wound up being an osteopath. I asked him what osteopathy can do for me. He indicated that although he can do adjustments, it's not part of his routine practice. He said that osteopathy attracts a different type of person with a different perspective towards medicine that can be helpful to many patients.

 

[rich01]

Per your articles on anemia, anemia's a common problem in the elderly severely at risk patients that used to be the only ones to get TAVRs. You are not that type of patient. Make sure you are eating right. That's just a good practice for any recovery.

My doc has been monitoring my red blood cells, etc for the last year because they were low. That's what got me to key on anemia. It also appeared to me that the article suggests that TAVR may induce anemia. I also have methylation problems which result in low B12 and folate, which can cause a type of anemia.

Per aches and pains, make sure you are distracted by life and not too focused on your recovery. Get up and about. Movement helps in a lot of ways.

I think it was the other way around. The 1st week I could walk for miles without getting tired. The 2nd week I was tired all the time, so I pushed myself on a couple of days. On both days, I fell into bed in late afternoon and slept for several hours. Almost felt like I just passed out. Still tired the next morning.

When it comes to doctors, if you like chiropractors, then I'd suggest you go to an osteopathic doctor. Chiropractors cannot give a full spectrum of care, but osteopaths can. I had to get a new doctor and he wound up being an osteopath. I asked him what osteopathy can do for me. He indicated that although he can do adjustments, it's not part of his routine practice. He said that osteopathy attracts a different type of person with a different perspective towards medicine that can be helpful to many patients.

My doctor is a DO, but she doesn't want to have any part of cardiac rehab. I guess I can understand, but she really left me hanging. I need to find a local internal med doctor who can at least approve lab tests and write prescriptions for me.

 

[Agian]

Iron supplements.

 

[rich01]

Iron supplements.

I'm thinking in my case it is caused by B12 and Folate, rather than iron.

 

[Agian]

B12 and folate supplements.

 

[rich01]

B12 and folate supplements.

Methyl B12 and methyl folate. I have a methylation problem so need the methyl forms.

 

[Agian]

Got it.

 

[rich01]

Update: Problem with pain in groin, fatigue, and heartburn are resolved. Evidently there was some leaking of the femoral artery and the blood put pressure on the femoral nerve. Once the leaking stopped and the blood was absorbed, no more pressure on nerve and now I feel fine.

 

[rich01]

Update: Went to er because I had a pain in my side, chest high for several days, plus a general discomfort in my chest, and my BP spiked to over 200/100.

All tests were negative for heart problem. It seems the pain in my side and chest discomfort might be muscle related. MY BP had a smaller spike the next day and has been fine since then.

Had my 1 month checkup today and doc said valve is working fine and blood flow in the heart is good. Thought muscle pain might be from beta blocker (I'm not taking any) or Crestor (I only take 5 mg every other day) but neither apply. He still thought it was just muscle pain, so I'm cleared to go full speed ahead. Don't have to go back for a full year unless I experience any problems.

I'm going to start pushing myself because I didn't get much exercise in last month. Starting rehab next week (had to postpone because of muscle pain) and probably going to join Y to take a flexibility class. Add all the fall yard work that needs to get done and I should be able to get back in form in a month or 2.

 

[pellicle]

I'm going to start pushing myself because I didn't get much exercise in last month.

Take it gently and if you can, journal what you do. Then you can see if you are ramping up too far or plateauing.

Best Wishes

 

[rich01]

Take it gently and if you can, journal what you do. Then you can see if you are ramping up too far or plateauing.

Best Wishes

I probably should have said push myself off the couch, even if I don't feel like it.

 

[pellicle]

I probably should have said push myself off the couch

no worries, amply repaid by the nice chuckle I got reading this bit ;-)

 

[Ladybug]

Went to Wake Forest Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC for TAVR. Initially it was to be done through the Medtronics TAVR trial, but when FDA approved TAVR for low risk patients, I was switched to Medicare.

Actual procedure took about an hour. I felt some pain because I had asked to have the minimal amount of sedation. The last 10 minutes I asked to have sedation increased as the pain was getting tough to handle. I spend an hour in recovery and then moved to my room. I was supposed to lay flat for 4 hours (1 in recovery and 3 in room), but nurse was late getting back so I was flat on my back for 5 hours. At that point, the urine catheter (condom style) was removed and I was able to walk to the bathroom. I still had some urinary retention, but nowhere near as bad as after stents. I took a flomax at home and then had another after the procedure.

Got maybe 2 hours sleep - they do BP, temperature, and heart rate every 4 hours, they do a blood draw at midnight, they weigh you at 4 pm, and did an ekg at 5 am. A tip for anyone spending the night in hospital - bring a sleep mask.

The procedure went well enough that this morning several people mentioned I would probably be released today. Finally got released at 2PM, so about 30 hours in hospital. A lot of bruising at catheter site, but other than that I feel great. Follow-up appointment is in a month.

Hi There...

I had TAVR at Emory St. Joseph’s in Atlanta on 9-19-19. I brought my black sleeping mask to the hospital, but would give anything if I had worn it during the procedure. I have dry eyes and they crack open in my sleep. My eyes cooked under those strong lights, and possibly the fluoroscope. In recovery, my eyes were in acute pain. They had to keep flooding them with eye wash solution. My eyes could not have burned more if they had placed jalapeño seeds under my eyelids.

The hospital is no place to get rest. They did a lousy job on my IV pic line in the bend of my right arm. My husband spent the night in lounge chair. The LOUD IV alarm would go off in an ongoing manor. I was in the last room down a very long hall and it took the nurse forever to come down to my room and reset it. So eventually, after this blasted me numerous times, my husband would press the reset button himself to shut off the noise, and had OK’d this with the nurse that was running her legs off. Then, around 2 AM a shift changed nurse came in the room to check my BP. The IV alarm went off. My husband reached over and pressed the reset button. The nurse had a rage attack over it. She told him if he did it again, she would have security throw him out of the hospital. Very nasty raised tone of voice. At that point, I was exhausted and told the jackass to just try it and I’d sue the socks off the damned hospital....because why had nobody just changed out the damned malfunctioning machine...Duh?!?! Also, change out the pick which was bleeding out. I was told they could not because it would be an infection risk.

Also, they measure your urine output by placing a plastic “potty” in the toilet that has measuring marks in it. I had to repeatedly call the nurses to come and empty the measuring pot and log the measurement which was full from my prior use. I would be about die to urinate before they would come. At one point, I got fed up and poured the prior urine in the toilet and placed the potty in the shower. It had never been rinsed.

I had a highly skilled doctor. He had done 750 plus of these TAVR. But I can clearly see why the Cleveland Clinic and the Mayo Clinic are rated 100% by U S News and World report Best Hospitals, and St. Joseph’s gets a 50.4%.

The recovery is easy, but my energy level is not as good as it was prior to TAVR. I think it will come along in time. I’m 73 years old. Both of my grown children are marathon runners. Since I told them that TAVR would increase blood flow to every organ, per the doctor, I fall way short of the physical expectations of my children regarding what they thought my physical fitness would be.

 

[rich01]

The recovery is easy, but my energy level is not as good as it was prior to TAVR. I think it will come along in time. I’m 73 years old. Both of my grown children are marathon runners. Since I told them that TAVR would increase blood flow to every organ, per the doctor, I fall way short of the physical expectations of my children regarding what they thought my physical fitness would be.

I'm exactly the same after TAVR as before. I did have 3 days where I felt fantastic, but then back to feeling tired most of the time.

I'm happy with the doctor and his team, but the care in the hospital was spotty. I don't know if they were understaffed or if some of the nurses were just not very good, but care varied from excellent to poor depending on the time of day and which nurse was assigned to me.

At least we have it behind us and hopefully won't have to do it again.