Good Morning
lots of good comments above. So I'll cut to the chase:
... with an on-x artificial valve and aorta graft.
I have an ATS mechanical valve with an aortic graft and I'm on Warfarin and that was done 12 years ago now. I was on beta blockers for the first months (didn't count, can't be sure, but think it was like 3 or 6)
the purpose of the beta blockers is similar to the purpose of a cast for a broken leg: it prevents you from breaking it while its setting.
Same goes for both the electro-chemistry (the nerves within the heart that signal and control beating) as well as the stitches holding your tissue to the graft until it takes. You don't want the stitches to "rip off" as then valve to rip off and you would be dead.
By 3 months the tissue has regrown (endothelia and the process is not unlike a plant like (say) ivy growing all over a brick wall .. they grow inextricably together. The other thing is that the stitching remains waterproof (well blood) and prevents leaks until the endothelia have got it covered.
but because of the aorta graft I can't live the lifestyle I was used to.
I have totally no idea why you can't live the lifestyle you were used to; but then I don't know your lifestyle. Perhaps you were an Olympic level athlete or a top ranked UFC fighter who trains like a machine and is still in command of that heavy weight title which you've kept solidly longer than anyone (but I'd have heard of that).
So basically if you're a normal human you can live the lifestyle you used to. I sure did. I had my OHS for graft and clacker in 2011 ... between then and now I've
- trained myself back up to where I was (about the first year after OHS)
- battles an infections (and trained back up)
- got back to where I was and exceeded it in cross country skiing (went back to life in Finland from Australia where I had my surgery and where I come from)
- cycled prodigiously
- weight trained carefully and reflectively (I'm not into bulking)
So to return there is nothing about what has surgically been don to you which prevents you living your life. An old post
here, you can find more if you want.
Just walking uphill wears me out.
as suggested, that could well be the beta blockers. As I've mentioned here on VR before, I use (now) betablockers again because I developed an arrythmia after about 10 years (dunno why, I could make some guesses). I picked Metoprolol Tartrate (importantly, not Succinate) because it allows me windows of "low effect" to do training.
That becomes necessary if you are going to be on them permanently.
Is it normal to still be in pain this far out from surgery?
no, its not, so that's something you need to report and discuss with your team.
To me the 1 year point is an important indicator of surgical outcomes, on the way there you'll perhaps identify issues, which need correcting. So now you've detected an issue you need to see to it that its corrected.
Best Wishes