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View Full Version : My wife had a stress test today


traig
September 8th, 2005, 04:49 PM
Some of you are familiar with our situation from some posts I made in the anti-coagulation forum about my wife's recent surgery (see this update (http://www.valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12694) and my original post (http://www.valvereplacement.com/forums/showthread.php?t=12276) if you're interested).

My wife is supposed to undergo some physical therapy for a while as part of ongoing recovery from her stroke. The therapists weren't sure how far they could go with her therapy so they asked her to take a stress test and have her doctor evaluate the results.

We're still waiting for the eval but the test was this morning. She's on Toprol, 12.5 mg in the morning and at night in order to get her resting rate under 100. She said she was able to go about 10.5 minutes on the treadmill, where they upped the incline once a minute. My wife was in good shape before and even during the pregnancy but her endocarditis and the MVR and AVR surgery had their impact and she has to build her strength back.

Her concern is her heart rate. She started around 100 before the test and got to a max of 185 during the test, even w/ the Toprol. Nearly two hours after the test was over and she was home resting, she was still around 120 bpm. Is this normal? I said that the beta-blockers would interfere with the rate coming back down just as much as going up, but she didn't feel like that made sense. I said I'd see if anyone here had any post-surgery stress test experience to relate.

Georgia
September 8th, 2005, 09:59 PM
Don't know anything about stress tests, but . . .

My heartrate would be really high with 4 mo. old twins. ;)

I had trouble with my heartrate post-op - I was on 100 mg toprol A.M. and 50 mg P.M. It took nearly a year for my heartrate to come down; and the toprol was reduced to 50 mg morning and night. I never had a-fib; and my hr never approached 185 during work-outs. Sounds like she might need a higher dose for a while.

traig
September 9th, 2005, 08:54 AM
I guess it's not unusual to need beta-blockers for a while. When she was at a rate of 120-130 two weeks after surgery I was really concerned and searched similar reports (which is how I found this site). From what I gather it's not uncommon for the heart to beat fast for even several months while it's healing? The docs said they had to scrape a bit of her atrium after the valves were replaced just to get some of the infection that had spread off the valves.

Our hope is it'll steadily come down and we can get her off the Toprol. She's already bummed sometimes over having to take the coumadin every day... I keep telling her, there are marathoners and triathletes on the valvereplacement site! :o

Karen
September 9th, 2005, 09:41 AM
Hi there...

I was wondering if you have children older than the twins? I am the mother of twin sons -- going to be 22 next month. You have certainly had your hands full getting those babies here and then your wife going through OHS so soon afterwards. I hope you have LOTS of help! :)

Best wishes to you all,
Karen

ALCapshaw2
September 9th, 2005, 11:48 AM
I suspect that "scraping" her atrium may have had a significant effect on the electrical conduction paths along her heart which can affect heart rhythm.

You may want to do some research about the MAZE procedure which involves making small incisions along the exterior of the heart to interrupt undesired electrical impulses. As I recall, recovery from this process can take a few months as the heart heals and 'adjusts' to it's new condition. Not all surgeons do the MAZE procedure so you may want to find and consult with a MAZE practicioner.

Dealing with post-op rhythm problems is never fun but they usually resolve in time (unfortunately it seems like way too much time when going through it :( ).

'AL Capshaw'

traig
September 13th, 2005, 11:22 AM
I just posted a new thread. Rebecca is back in the hospital due to tachycardia (higher than normal) and fever.

AL - I think you're right, my impression was the healing would take a while... months and months, maybe. It makes sense to me, the heart doesn't much time to heal with all that beating going on.

Karen - that's it, just the twins, thank God . I can't imaging trying to corral a toddler or two with these "twinfants" keeping us busy. We always wanted two kids, we just happened to be efficient about it! ;)