Marathon Running

[Jasonan89]

I received my brand new, shiny mechanical aeortic heart valve almost 2 and a half years ago. I have since ran a marathon (one year and seven days after spending 24 days in the hospital for open-heart surgery) and I am currently training for my second marathon since my surgery. (Third marathon overall.) I feel great. What I'm wondering is this...My cardiologist told me that in one of the stitches that's holding my valve in, there's a small amount of blood leaking in. He said that by running, there's a small chance that that will exasperate the problem and make it work. Does anybody else have any experience on this? I'm also wondering if there's how many people out there have run a marathon after having open heart surgery?
I'm a healthy, rambunctious 23 year old and I want to put my mind at ease.

Thanks!

 

[ski girl]

Jason I intend to run a marathon, do a four day mountain bike race, and whatever else my creaky 42 year old knees will let me do. The way I see it, my heart is fixed and I should be able to do anything. It's really good to hear you did a marathon just one year post-op!

Fortunately for me I don't have any loose stitches so I can't give you any advice there!

 

[Guest]

No experience with what you are dealing with. How did your cardio make that determination? CT? Echo? Can you run it by your surgeon to see what he/she has to say? It never hurts to check in with the surgeon and second opinion from another cardio if you are comfortable with that.

There are several valvers that have run marathons after their surgery, some of us are running 1/2 marathons, some of us are running 10Ks, 5Ks, whatever distance we like to run.

 

[tprice54]

Yup, plenty of valves running marathons and more...I have 5 since surgery, including a Goofy challenge. My advice is get a second opinion, from a surgeon. Not that your cardio is a problem, but a surgeon put those stitches in. Bunch of us will meet up in Syracuse in October for the Empire state marathon.....

 

[kodi]

Listen to the advice of Tom & LucyLou.
I ran my first post-operation marathon 1 year 1 day after surgery... at the age of 69. I ran five more since then, the latest this past October.

 

[spartangator]

Yup, distance running post-surgery is pretty common around here. Also, want to echo everyone's advice about a second opinion and a consult with your surgeon to get the full picture--best to get excellent advice on these things.

 

[MarkU]

I agree with the advice to get better medical clarification on your situation.
As far as running, I mostly due triathlons, but am running my third half marathon since my surgery three weeks from now. I don't think I'll ever do a full marathon, but that's due to the limitatiosn of my age (59) and various physical ailments, none of them cardiac-related.
Mark

 

[Jasonan89]

Thanks everyone!

 

[newyorker]

I came across this thread as I was searching for info about running marathons with mechanical valves.

I had my aortic root replaced and valve repaired on 2/1/13, at age 33, due to aneurysm + bicuspid valve. Ran NYC marathon (my first ever) on 11/3/13. Not fast, my time was 4:32, but felt like a champion. Also ran NYC half on 3/16/14.

Last week I went in for an echo and found out the valve has "fallen apart", to quote my cardiologist. Severe leakage. Scheduled for a valve replacement surgery in less than two weeks. Probably forfeiting the spot I already secured for the 2014 NYC marathon

 

[mbeard]

I am so very sorry to hear about your misfortune with your valve. There are many experts here that will chime in here with their experiences. I wish you good luck.

 

[Ryan CA]

Oh man..what a shock. Sorry to hear. I would imagine with the new valve you will be back at it in no time.

 

[ski girl]

Oh newyorker that SUCKS. I had to have a second OHS 10.5 months after my first, just as I was starting to feel like I was turning a corner in terms of my training. NOT a nice feeling. Feel free to vent to us on here about the unfairness of this as a few of us totally get where you're coming from!

Maybe your new valve will be even better than the current one - mine is!!!

Best of luck from down under

 

[SumoRunner]

Last week I went in for an echo and found out the valve has "fallen apart", to quote my cardiologist. Severe leakage. Scheduled for a valve replacement surgery in less than two weeks. Probably forfeiting the spot I already secured for the 2014 NYC marathon

Sounds like the original valve repair was less than perfect, but then again you may have done too much too soon. They don't give any guarantees in this line of work. As for the mechanical valves, mine is going strong at 23 years.

 

[newyorker]

Sounds like the original valve repair was less than perfect, but then again you may have done too much too soon. They don't give any guarantees in this line of work. As for the mechanical valves, mine is going strong at 23 years.

I have a meeting scheduled for tomorrow with the surgeon who did the repair, very interested to hear his thoughts. As for doing too much too soon, who knows, but I did have clearance from both a cardiologist and the surgeon to run the marathon 9 months later.

I also asked a different surgeon for his thoughts regarding running this year's marathon in November after a surgery next week. His response was that from a purely surgical perspective, the healing takes 3-4 months, but that a cardiologist's opinion would trump his in this matter. So, 2015 it is, hopefully.

 

[river-wear]

How did it go today, newyorker?

 

[SumoRunner]

No, no issues with the valve ever, and yes, many people have done marathons, ultras, even Ironman. I am not a marathoner, always preferred running track distances, but I've done hundreds of races from 200 meters to half marathon.