Is this normal?

[athul]

Hi all,

I'm about 6 weeks post op from an AVR (mechanical) and aside from a hectic holiday and a bout of a-fib, I think my recovery, while a bit boring, is relatively normal. But I do have a couple of questions I wish to throw out to this forum to see if they are "normal".
1) My heart w/ mech valve "thumps" loudly against my chest when I take deep breathes or lay flat on my back. Will this go away? It doesn't hurt but it is distracting.
2) I start rehab next week. In the meanwhile, I've been walking as the weather permits. When I get to about a 1/2 mile, I start to get a bit light-headed and need to stop. Is this typical?
3) Also, my chest area is rather sensitive about 6" on each side of my incision. Loose shirts drive me nuts as they rub against my chest hairs. How long till the nerves usually get back to normal in this area?
It seems this recovery stuff is slower than I expected and I look forward to rehab next week in hopes it will pick up the pace a bit. Anyone that can shed some light on these potentially minor issues I would appreciate hearing from.
thanks in advance
andy

[kingpeta]

Hi all,

I'm about 6 weeks post op from an AVR (mechanical) and aside from a hectic holiday and a bout of a-fib, I think my recovery, while a bit boring, is relatively normal. But I do have a couple of questions I wish to throw out to this forum to see if they are "normal".
1) My heart w/ mech valve "thumps" loudly against my chest when I take deep breathes or lay flat on my back. Will this go away? It doesn't hurt but it is distracting.
2) I start rehab next week. In the meanwhile, I've been walking as the weather permits. When I get to about a 1/2 mile, I start to get a bit light-headed and need to stop. Is this typical?
3) Also, my chest area is rather sensitive about 6" on each side of my incision. Loose shirts drive me nuts as they rub against my chest hairs. How long till the nerves usually get back to normal in this area?
It seems this recovery stuff is slower than I expected and I look forward to rehab next week in hopes it will pick up the pace a bit. Anyone that can shed some light on these potentially minor issues I would appreciate hearing from.
thanks in advance
andy

Judging from my experiences, yes it all sounds "normal". I know at 6 weeks I had all the same feelings as you. At 8 weeks it all seemed to magically disappear. I'm surprised you haven't started rehab yet - I began 2 weeks after surgery. Rehab helps A LOT. You'll start feeling better quicker once you start.

[Ross]

Quite normal for 6 weeks and yes, rehab should kick it all up a notch or two. You'll be feeling much better a week into it.

[TomS]

The valve noise is very normal. The "lightheadedness" should be mentioned to your cardiologist, but is most likely a quick bout of afib, or just part of returning back to higher levels of exercise. Blood pressure medication and some pain relievers can also do this to you. The road back can be bumpy. Don't start to think that feeling poorly will last forever, or that it's going to continue to be a slow recovery. My experience was that after a 5-7 week initial healing period, that you can feel exponentially better over a weeks time. Your recovery sounds to be progressing along those uneven lines as well.

[BDMc]

And familiar. What's "rehab"? I don't think we had that in my day! The thumping of your heart will be less distracting/noticeable, but if you're like me, will always be much more pronounced than before the surgery. All the best, Brian

[ALCapshaw2]

In addition to Cardiac Rehab, I recommend a Heart Rate Monitor and a Stethoscope. Then you will be able to monitor your Heart Rate and listen for abnormal rhythm or rate. The 'thumping' usually diminishes in time but can return under certain conditions. You can amuse yourself by keeping a journal of when the thumping occurs and what you were doing. You might even mention it to your cardiologist. Tell us what he says. Most seem to just shrug it off.

'AL Capshaw'

[Cris N]

I'll address the skin sensitivity - being a woman I didn't have the chest hair issue but you've probably got two things going on. One is the hair itself growing back - nothing you can really do about that unless you want to wax :D :eek: . The other is the skin itself. Mine was hypersensitive and I tried all sorts of things. One that I found worked the best was to wear a rather tight fitting tank top or an undershirt under my regular shirt. This kept the outer shirt from sliding across the skin. For a while I used a gauze pad with vaseline to help stick it to the skin (and used the 'gentle' tape.) This provided protection. I tried all sorts of things til I hit on this combination including have the surgeon's PA used the 'krazy glue' and a coating - DON'T TRY THIS!!!!! At night before I went to bed I rubbed on Aloe gel and as things got better I was able to apply firm pressure and regularly massaged the area. It's 95% better now. Not perfect but close enough!

Hope you get some relief!

Cris

[Georgia]

I suggest a silk undershirt. Order a good one from Land's End or Wintersilks - I wore one all through the time I was home.

You might try a good antibiotic ointment with painkiller - usually called whatever "plus". I found it to ease the itching a lot. Also used Vit. E oil (the really thick stuff) on the scar - keeps it moist and stops the pulling.

[KAJ]

Andy,

As far as the thumping goes, we are all different. Some will say they hardly hear their valves. I hear mine about 90 - 95% of the time. It is distracting at times. I keep reminding myself that at least I am around it to hear it. Even if I ever had had choice to go with a quieter model, there is no way I would go through the surgery again. I will live with the thump :).

Karl