The Granbonny Recovery Time Poll

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The Granbonny Recovery Time Poll

  • 2 months

    Votes: 6 20.0%
  • 6 months

    Votes: 7 23.3%
  • 9 months

    Votes: 4 13.3%
  • 1 year

    Votes: 7 23.3%
  • 1.5 years

    Votes: 2 6.7%
  • 2 years

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • never fully recovered

    Votes: 3 10.0%
  • other

    Votes: 1 3.3%

  • Total voters
    30
K

Karlynn

How long did it take to achieve, what you would consider, 90 - 100% recovery from your surgery. Think of this as 90 - 100% recovery of what you would consider normal, usual activities that were done prior to valve problems.
 
It took me a very long time, 2 years, because I was very debilitated prior to surgery. My activity had gradually deteriorated due to severe arrhythmia for about 4 years prior to surgery. I was a couch potato for a good 6 months prior to surgery. If I were to face surgery again, I think my recovery time would be better.

I have always heard that 1 year is when most people say they think "Hey, I'm really feeling good now." Will be interesting to see what our poll shows.
 
Well - I have to vote "other" because each surgery was different.

First - Never fully recovered - which is why I needed the second.
Second - About 2 years because I was in such bad shape
Third - About 3-4 months. Recovery was harder but faster.

Hopefully I will never have to report on a 4th.
 
I voted "other".

Although I feel better now ( five months post op ) than before surgery, I dont know how close to normal this is, because I dont know what normal for me feels like.

I was severely stenotic with valve area around 0.6 cm^2 on cath and had severe concentric hypertrophy of the left ventricle on the surgeons report, so I musnt have been anywhere close to normal. I feel better physically and quite a bit better mentally now.

Going by a single measure: resting HR -- I am doing almost as well as ever now -- I am at 60bpm now and was around 55bpm a year before surgery.

I hope I make even more progress as time goes by -- generally pretty happy with how I feel now -- less physical fatigue, increased mental alertness and feel that an emotional burden has been lifted as well ( better mood ).
 
I'm still not sure how to define recovery. Physically, I was more than fully recovered as soon as my sternum healed up, certainly by six months. Mentally, perhaps in part emotionally, I've concluded I'll never recover.
 
My Aortic Valve Replacement Surgery was my second heart surgery, having previously undergone Bypass Surgery.

Recovery seemed to come in stages which are now somewhat blurred in my memory. I 'think' I was mostly recovered at 6 months but noticed continued gradual improvement until at 18 months, I felt like I had reached my 'full recovery potential'. By then I was doing hard physical work (push mowing 2 acres and cutting / trimming trees by hand with Bow Saws).

At 2 years post-op, I felt I was beginning to decline again due to arrhythmias and what turns out to be continuing stenosis of my Mitral Valve.

It should be noted that my case is somewhat unique in that my much or most of my heart damage can be attributed to Radiation Therapy MANY years ago for Hodgkins Disease. It is likely that radiation damaged my Coronary Arteries and the Heart Muscle itself, in addition to my Aortic and Mitral Valves. One Radiation Oncologist suspects that the level of radiation I received exceeded the prescribed dose due to poor measurement accuracy / control in the early days of radiation therapy.

'AL Capshaw'
 
Depends on which one

Depends on which one

Using the 90% rule:

First surgery- 2 weeks
Second surgery- 2 weeks
Third surgery- 6 weeks
Fourth surgery- still not recovered after 11 months!
 
Truth is, I felt immediately better after surgery. My heart felt like it was just coasting, like on the wind-in-your-hair downhill after a long, hard hill climb on a bicycle.

I put "two months" because of the sternum healing. Although I never had any problems with it, I was aware that I could damage it, and limited myself (somewhat) accordingly.

Best wishes,
 
Dick was back to full speed after 3 months and all restrictions were off - played tennis, golf, etc. He never had symptoms before hand (except for one big one-fainting on the tennis court :eek: ).
 
Not really sure as time does blur some of the lines, but certainly within 5-6 mos. I was back jogging and showing the goats, lifting heavy stuff etc. I am still elated as I find myself doing stuff that would not have been possible or at least possible with so little effort prior to surgery. Doing farm chores w/o getting exhausted practically before I started.
 
Wow, we have more 2 month-ers here than I expected. For those of you that chose "2 months", how were you feeling prior to the surgery?
 
I checked 9 months. I was much improved right away and probably all recovered from the surgery by 9mo, except for the damage to my right lung. I think the ups and downs I go through physically have much more to do with the rheumatic heart disease in the other parts of my heart and the resultant pulmonary hypertension.
 
I said 6 months. But, 6 months is when I would say that I started feeling 'back to normal' physically. Mentally, I still feel like I deal with it and it's been 1 1/2 years. My one year anniversary was a VERY difficult time for me mentally, I had to seek a therapist and was put on some anti anxiety meds. :rolleyes:

I feel I was in fairly good shape before my surgery, I had no idea I had anything wrong until 3 days before I had emergency OHS and I don't think my condition really effected me that much, mainly just chest pain. It was a myxoma tumor attached to my mitral valve.
 
Before surgery, any non-sedentary activity - going up and down stairs, walking fast, even eating too much - would cause angina, which I mostly felt in my throat. I always tried to ignore it, but it was like having a very bad sore throat or that feeling from breathing hard in very cold air, coupled with heavy thumping from my heart, until things would settle down again.

I was entertained nightly with spontaneous, thrilling displays of cardiac arrhythmia, which left me weak and unrefreshed in the morning.

I was bone-tired every night, even if I didn't do enough to justify it. It was bad enough that I was really ready when the time actually came, risks or not.

Best wishes,
 
tobagotwo said:
I was entertained nightly with spontaneous, thrilling displays of cardiac arrhythmia, which left me weak and unrefreshed in the morning.

This was my issue, although it was 24/7, not just at night. After 4 years of it my body was totally worn down. My cardiologist tried diligently to find an answer for the arrhythmia, short of surgery because no one felt the surgery was an answer to ending the arrhythmia. Fortunately it was 97% successful. I still get some from time to time, but not continually. I answered "2 years". I probably felt good after a year, but I had developed, what I would call, agoraphobia. Because my heart was in a continual state of gymnastics, I became afraid to drive, or even walk anywhere by myself. It took me 2 years to recover, but I would say the latter half was almost all mental recovery.
 
I voted for two months, but I think it was more like somewhere between the second and third month.

What is recovery?

As far as recovery from the surgery goes -- I have to say, that was very quick and easy. I was in pretty good shape before the surgery, I think. I never had any very noticeable symptoms anyway (my PCP noticed a murmur in the course of an appointment for something completely different). During the months between the diagnosis and the surgery I exercised and got into pretty good shape. Afterwards it was just a matter of getting back to where I had gotten just before surgery. I never had much pain or breathing problems. At about six weeks I started cardiac rehab. That went VERY well & I definitely recommend it.

But if "recovery" refers to what caused you to need to have the surgery, it is not just going to "go away". My cardio says I still have "heart disease," the underlying condition -- i.e.., my heart is different from most folk. I still have some regurgitation (but not severe regurgitation as I had before) and some stenosis. My left ventricle function is still impaired, compared to a "normal" heart. (But according to the MUGA test my EF is within normal range -- low normal but normal.) A little more than a year after the surgery, I have now been diagnosed with A-flutter, and now I have to go on coumadin. I don't know if the flutter is a consequence of having OHS or if I would have had it anyway.

Mentally -- well, maybe I am in denial or have dissociated from reality, but I've never really felt much different mentally -- except of course at the time of first diagnosis (total shock) -- and when I was facing the surgery (fear, but I was also very glad that there WAS something specific they could do).

Now, well, I feel fine. I do not really feel that having heart surgery "changed" me.

Even this A-flutter business: I don't "feel" anything (I didn't know I had it) so it was hard for me to accept that it's anything I need to do anything about -- i.e. coumadin. I had hoped I was off that for good after the first three months post-op, but apparently it was not to be.

Still -- overall, I am an incredibly lucky person!
 
On the Road Again

On the Road Again

Really interesting poll, Karlynn. I didn't check any of them because I'm just in my 10th week past surgery, and I'm exploring what full recovery means. I know I'm feeling considerably stronger (can walk up basement stairs now with no problem and keep up fairly well with my dog on our hikes now :) ). But just started cardiac rehab today because I want to lose weight and get still better and do more. If all goes well, I may find that 6 months marked my full recovery.

It is fascinating to read the experiences of those of you who are farther along the road than I am. Thanks!

Bob
 
Before surgery

Before surgery

Karlynn said:
Wow, we have more 2 month-ers here than I expected. For those of you that chose "2 months", how were you feeling prior to the surgery?

Before my first two surgeries, (even though my heart was extremely enlarged, had no real valve and wasn't expected to live more than a month or so) I felt great.

My third, I had had a stroke and felt very tired, but not from my heart.

My fourth, I was in a-fib, was tired and had SOB if I walked fast. The surgery
changed very little of that.
 
Good question, Karlynn. One of the reasons I don't post much any more is that I recovered within three weeks. I know this is an aberration but God blessed me with this and it's a fact.

Paul
 
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