Hi
Hi all, I am four weeks out from mechanical MVR (plus tricuspid repair, Maze procedure, left atrial appendage clip, and a pacemaker).
I’m curious about people’s experiences about heart rate after surgery. Although I am on metoprolol tartrate 50 mg twice a day, resting heart rate is still about 85 bpm edging to 95 or occasionally over 100 at the “end” of doses.
Do you remember if / when this gets better? Is this concerning?
for whatever reason I did not gather and document my HR data, but I can say that even a few months after my #3OHS (but equally, the "when I got a mech" valve) I had elevated HR above where I felt was my prior level. I would have bouts of '
over 100' which I would try to control with breathing exersizes, and in the main this was successfu.
I can't say when it went to more like 70 or 60, but I think it was somewhere about when I was cycling more, lengthy beach walks (soft sand is a killer) and some jogging (I hate jogging).
By about a year or so IIRC I would be around 60 (58~62) on wake up and 70 something when doing things. For reference its 64 right now (9pm and dinner was 7pm, had a beer in the afternoon after mowing and other lawn related obligations).
I've recently (last few months) decided to do a different cardio vascular operation of 15min of higher intensity (not high by me at 25) cycling about every other day. I'm pretty sure that exersize (and when you can do it, don't push too hard too early) slowly allows the muscle and nerve system to "find" that it doesn't need to push as hard as it did. That may be something that falls into "remodelling"
Also, just getting over a flu.
So yes, it gets better (or I got better).
As to concerning .. keep an eye on it, make some notes (better than I did) and discuss with your cardiologist.
Try the breathing exersize too.
Blood pressure in both cases ranges from 90/58 to 100/60 at rest.
I'm no specialist there, but that seems a little low to me ... 127/76 : 65 right now.
You didn't mention this, but I wanted to just add that the feeling of the 'beat' or 'pulse' was much more pronounced ... in hospital I felt it rocking me. I notice that it still does, but I'm just no longer usually aware of that (unless trying to take a picture of something with my 600mm lens.
I hope it starts to return to priors soon
Best Wishes
