Travis's Posts

A recent TEE shows that my valve is now leaking worse than it was after my surgery. And it looks like it's been leaking like this since about 6 months post op. My cardiologist says on a scale from 1 to 10 (10 being worse) it's a 6. That sounds bad to me but he just wants to keep an eye on it and have another TEE in 6 months to see if it's staying the same or getting worse. So it's looking like re-surgery is going to happen here in a couple years. My chest/shoulder/back pains are still a problem and I have seen a neurologist about it and so far there is no idea to why I am getting these pains. I have two MRI's of my upper and mid spine scheduled this week to try and find some answers I will post next week if anything is discoverd.

I am still having random chest pain episodes. My physical stanima in the pool has been great. But I've been getting the pain episodes very frequently. The pain could be in my back, neck, shoulder, or chest. It isn't as severe and as it was 6 months to a year ago and they don't physically set me back a month or two like they did, but they are still there lingering for days. But I can pick up where I left off. Running seems to really irritate and maybe even cause the pain episodes. And maybe push ups and pull ups do too. I saw 4 doctors about but stopped going over a year ago because I have got no answers from them. All I get is nice big bill in the mail. The Navy wouldn't even consider me because of the condition I HAD despite being able to have highly competitive physical scores and having high ranking officers and congressmen on the Armed Forces Committee trying to puch me through. I thinking it could have something to do with the drawdown and me needing an age and medical waiver and not the actual condition that I had. I have noticed that I can't gain wait at all. I don't think it's in a bad way though. Could be from two a day swimming workouts or just the fact that I have a more efficient heart. I do know that I weighed about 10 more pounds 8 years ago when I swam twice as much in college.

This is a review of some key points and timelines over the past year after my mitral valve repair. Second week: -I increased my walks to 4 miles a day. Stretching and doing 5 lb weight lifts at high repititons. Third week: -Started adding in short jogs during my walks. My heart felt like it was bouncing around in my chest and was very uncomfortable. This feeling got less and less over the next couple weeks. Fourth week: -Returned to work. Started swimming 1000 yard workouts 80% kicking, 20% pulling lightly with right arm. Fifth week: -Bouncing feeling in my heart when I run almost gone. -Able to jog my first non-stop mile in 9:30 Sixth week: -Incisions look like clean lines now with a little redness around them. -Still a little bit of that hard scar tissue under some of my incisions. -Chest and lat muscles feel about 80% healed from the incisions. -The deformity in my right chest from the main incision is practically gone. -Still have some loss of feeling in my right chest form nerve damage. -Able to hold a 8:00 pace for two miles straight, heart rate in the 160's. -1600 meter swim workouts, only 600 yards of actually pulling. -Still cannot put full pressure on my lats when pulling. 2 months: -I feel normal now doing normal, everyday things. -Working out though I feel about 75%. -Ran a 6:45 mile on the street and a 3 mile at 7:50 pace. -Swimming, I can now pull I has hard as I want to. -Returned to doing push-ups and pull-ups -No muscular pain anywhere. -I still don't have all of the feeling back in my chest or lat 3 months: -First chest pain episode. Extreme pain lasted for 5 days. -Profuse sweating at night comes along with these pain episodes. -I'm almost positive this is from nerve growth or healing. -With the chest pains comes: 1. Increased PVC's 2. Chest/back/shoulder pain on the left side. 3. Profuse sweating at night. I will wake up completely soaking wet like I just jumped out of the swimming pool. But I'm not hot. 4. Increased sensitivity and numbness in my right nipple because the nerves that go to the nipple go between the 4th and 5th rib....The same place where the incision is made. 5. Bouncing feeling in my heart comes back when I run. 4 months: -Great progress and recovery form first pain episode. -Second chest pain episode. 5 Months: -Still getting random 5 day chest pain episodes every couple of weeks. -In between pain episodes, I've increased my runs to 5 miles, and swims to 4000 yards. 6 Months: -It took my chest 3 to 4 weeks to feel "right" again from my last pain episode. -Cut back on intensity of workouts. -Increased swim workouts to around 5000 yards when I have time. -Decreased my runs to 3 miles since my chest doesn't feel right from the last episode. 8 Months: -Drastic increase in physical activity. -3000 to 6000 yard swim workouts. Sometimes twice a day. -1 mile run time 6:08 -Navy SEAL PST times are getting a little closer to pre surgery levels except my run time is still lagging drastically: -7:15 500 yard breaststroke swim. -2 minute push up, 100 reps. -2 minute sit up, 90 reps. -pull ups, 30 reps. -1.5 mile run 11:00 9 Months: -Swam in a US Masters swim meet. -Chest pain episode returned. -Took two months for my chest to feel good after this episode. 12 Months: -Swimming and running feels great -Push ups and pull ups fell great -Still not back to pre surgery run and swim times. -I do not feel fully recovered. -Still sometimes get feeling like the chest pain episodes could come back.