Adam's Posts

Great question Adam! Personally, I'd like to think, similar to you, that my heart is completely fixed. I'm about to celebrate my 18th year with no interventions following my procedure in 2005. However, when you talk to most doctors, they rarely (if ever) consider heart valve disease patients as "permanently fixed". This is one of the reasons that the topic of the "Lifetime Management of Heart Valve Disease" has become so important as we are all living longer lives. That said, I'm curious to know what others think about your question. Best, Adam P.S. I'm glad to hear that Dr. Balkhy took such great care of you!

Adam - Work health assessments can be used for a number of different purposes. Sometimes it's for informational purposes only, sometimes the physical demands of a job require them, other times it can be for health or life insurance liability/ pricing purposes. You can certainly inquire why you're being asked these medical questions before you complete the document and also ask if participation is voluntary. ❤️

I think I pushed it a little too much. Another (younger) patient that had my same procedure and surgeon posted that she ran 7 miles on her three week anniversary. I was thinking, “ That’s gonna be me.” But it was not to be. I went back to work on my three week anniversary (desk job) and was still feeling nerve pain on skin around the incisions, but no breathing pain. So I prematurely thought I was in the clear, stopped all meds. I was walking three miles a day since day since day four. Listen to your doctor and team first, but if eager to get back to strenuous excercise or work, I’d now say give it a good 3-4 weeks of continued walking once you feel good.

Adam- I had my Robotic MV Repair one year ago at age 60. I was able to run 3 miles prior to surgery and found that the hardest thing to get back was my cardio work outs. IWhen I started cardiac rehab at about 3 wks post op I was able to walk 6 miles at a decent clip but the cardio exertion for running or exertion on elliptical took much patience and perseverance. My main advice is to rule out any cardiac issue related to pain and then try and figure out what is causing the pain. I discovered that my auxiliary breathing muscles in my L neck was the culprit. I treated it like a muscle- soft tissue injury and had a Chiro treat it with myotherapy which I believe is myofascial release. Whenever I increased the lever of cardio exertion it would come back and I’d go back for more treatment. It took about a month for me to work through it but I kept at it and it went away. For athletes- the cardio takes SO long to get back but keep at it as long as you know the pain is not from a heart issue but more about your body recovering in general. When I think about them deflating a lung and then the difficulty I had getting my lung capacity back in the first few months it all made sense as I worked through the cardiac rehab! I am happy to say I ran a half marathon (slow pace but ran every step) one year post op!