Hi again Gary47,
I am a very fit and active person. I love to workout and do so daily. I was originally diagnosed with an enlarged aorta about 2 years before surgery. I was desparately hoping that it would shrink back to normal with time. That didn't happen and it became clear that I would need surgery. I was petrified. I'd never had surgery before and was in amazing health. Who'd have thought, huh? Well, as I'm about 4.5 months post-surgery now, I can tell you that I'm back to working out normally again and feel as if I'd never had surgery. In fact, at about 10-12 weeks post-surgery, if I didn't have the scar, I would never have known that I went through surgery.
I think recovery is very lifestyle-dependent so be sure to check with your doctor but since you sound very fitness oriented, I'm sure you will also have a very speedy recovery. I was back in the gym, as I mentioned, three weeks post-surgery. It started out being mainly riding the lifecycle and doing some power-walking on the treadmill. At 6 wks post-op, I began doing some LIGHT weights and stretching, to get my joints and muscles back into the swing of things. And once I hit 12 weeks post-op, my doctors gave me the green light to start working out normally again. The only caveats I have are to stay away from very heavy weights. I still lift weights, only I tend to stay more in the moderate category and not push it into the heavy category these days. The doctors said I can do as much cardio as I want. So all in all, having had open heart surgery, I was very pleased that the only limitation I now have is to stay away from heavy weight lifting.
As for your running, the doctors told me to stay away from any jarring motions (like running) until at least 6 wks post-op. And not to get back into them fully until 12 weeks had passed. The theory is that after 12 weeks, your sternum should be fully healed so as to allow you to put stress on it again. But until that point (and especially before the 6 wk point) you need to let your chest fully heal so you don't run the risk of cracking it back open and having to go through the same thing all over again.
I know from personal experience that the anticipation was FAR worse than the reality. It really wasn't that bad. Honestly. It was MUCH better than I thought it would be. If you have any questions for me at all, please don't hesitate to ask. This forum was a wonderful source of information for me before surgery and I'd love to help others out. Have you scheduled with Dr. David yet? It took me about 6 months to get in for surgery but it was well worth the wait. Most of that time though was due to my insurance having issues with the fact that I wanted to go to Canada for surgery. Hopefully you won't face the same problem. Let me know if you have any other questions - I sure did!
