Raj's Posts

1 year surgery anniversary today. I can’t believe it’s been a year since my mitral valve repair - and it’s been a long time since I posted. But I wanted to share with everyone in this community my good thoughts and wishes for your own journey! For me, I am back to doing pretty much everything I was doing before - but with a greater sense of perspective and “seize the day”. I guess heart surgery does that for you. To celebrate this heart-a-versary I hit the road bike hard - 75+ miles/7000 feet of climbing - on this beautiful fall day in the MidAtlantic. I did something similar 6 months out, and am ever grateful. So yes, surgery is scary, and the recovery is never linear nor lock-step - but it is amazing what the docs can do when they find this thing and fix it.

When I went under the knife six months ago, my cardiologist said “within six months you should be able to resume your prior level of activities at the same - if not better - level of intensity”. As a lifetime endurance athlete, I was skeptical - and curious. Also very focused - and hopeful - that the mitral valve surgery would take care of something that was posing a material risk to my health and longevity. My near term aspiration was to be able to get back on the bike and knock out long, hard rides without feeling poorly. So here we are, six months out, and I am coming off a weekend that included a fantastic early season century with over 100+ miles/10K+ feet of climbing - all at a vigorous and challenging pace - I think 6.5+ hours of riding with an average HR ~ 145 or so (with some peaks on the climbs well above that). And as it relates to my heart - I didn’t notice it one way or the other. It did what it had to do and then some (although my legs were feeling it as we entered the seventh hour of riding). All of this is a long winded way of saying: “trust the process, trust the recovery” and believe it or not, you can get back to what you were doing, and perhaps “and then some”.