MV Re-repair and physical strength

[Iggy]

Hi all,
hope everyone is staying healthy during these trying times.

I had my mitral valve re-repair and a tricuspid valve repair (was decided at the OR) at the end of January 2020, a year after my first OHS. Full sternatomy, healed well, ribs hurt occasionally and it doesn't bother me much. Have had two echocardiograms after my 2nd surgery—right before discharge and at the end of March at my cardiologist's office that showed trace mitral regurgitation, and my doc said: "overall looks great." I have been doing my daily walks starting from 15 mins a day and am now going for 70-minute long, 4.5-mi. daily walks with 200 ft. elevation change. I watch my heart rate during my walks, and usually don't let it go higher than 160 bpm. It may get up to 145 bpm, when I go uphill.
Since it's been very hard for me to to get back to running, I try to get as much out of my walks as I can —going uphill, walking vigorously when I physically can. Pools are closed, so walking is my only exercise. What bugs me is that 4 months after the surgery, I am still inconsistent in my strength/endurance/energy level. It feels hard going uphill, my heart starts pounding and the rate goes up; I can run for about 2 mins, lol. Im in mid thirties and generally have a healthy diet/lifestyle. I recently noticed that if I push a little and try to go faster on my walk, I get tired/spacey for the rest of the day, have some palpitations, restlessness( having hard time falling asleep or sleeping well), or my left thumb and index finger tingle/ just funky sensation. Am I doing too much? I was wondering if I need another echo, but my doctor says it's too soon and he doesn't think that the valve is leaking again.

 

[Pete81]

Hi all,
hope everyone is staying healthy during these trying times.

I had my mitral valve re-repair and a tricuspid valve repair (was decided at the OR) at the end of January 2020, a year after my first OHS. Full sternatomy, healed well, ribs hurt occasionally and it doesn't bother me much. Have had two echocardiograms after my 2nd surgery—right before discharge and at the end of March at my cardiologist's office that showed trace mitral regurgitation, and my doc said: "overall looks great." I have been doing my daily walks starting from 15 mins a day and am now going for 70-minute long, 4.5-mi. daily walks with 200 ft. elevation change. I watch my heart rate during my walks, and usually don't let it go higher than 160 bpm. It may get up to 145 bpm, when I go uphill.
Since it's been very hard for me to to get back to running, I try to get as much out of my walks as I can —going uphill, walking vigorously when I physically can. Pools are closed, so walking is my only exercise. What bugs me is that 4 months after the surgery, I am still inconsistent in my strength/endurance/energy level. It feels hard going uphill, my heart starts pounding and the rate goes up; I can run for about 2 mins, lol. Im in mid thirties and generally have a healthy diet/lifestyle. I recently noticed that if I push a little and try to go faster on my walk, I get tired/spacey for the rest of the day, have some palpitations, restlessness( having hard time falling asleep or sleeping well), or my left thumb and index finger tingle/ just funky sensation. Am I doing too much? I was wondering if I need another echo, but my doctor says it's too soon and he doesn't think that the valve is leaking again.

Hi Iggy,

Sounds familiar, at least from the trying to go back to your usual everyday activities by building up an excercise routine. I had AVR at 35 and what you describe for running and your heart rate going up, same thing for me at the time. Clinic cardiac rehab gave me first confidence, this was very low intensity but with a good focus also on mobility, stretching etc. After that I went to my local gym and contacted one of the experienced personal trainers and trained for 5 months 1x a week doing HITT (10 min warm up on spinning, 30 min exercises, 10 min cool down on treadmill) think progress from lunges and calf raises to jumping jacks, high knees, burpy squats and tabata squats with 12Kg kettlebell. This was great! Yes the heart rate goes up at the end of the interval but then you pause and; you try everything new with a professional first so together and never alone. Of course you then do 2 sessions more that week by yourself. This got me really fit, after those 5 months I picked up running again, easy 5K and was doing 10 shortly after. If you can get clearance from your cardiologist (I did to of course) then I can recommend doing HITT for some time with a trainer. Of course at the time I did this in the gym but you could easily meet in the park, find a quiet corner and keep distance.