Glad you are continuing to improve. I’ll be 4 months out on the 5th of April and I’m finally starting to get back to normal. I mention you in my prayers daily.
Jeff - Enjoyed your videos on your journey. The PRE op videos convey important patient defined symptoms that doctors don't always understand in the way that exercising patients experience. Kind of gap between doctors and runners' experience on the shortness of breath and exercise fatigue feelings. Your videos describe it perfectly from a patient's standpoint. In addition, your compassion for your family members supporting you while you are under drugs and they having the tougher job during your surgery is admirable. You can be proud of your kids and wife and vice versa. Sometimes the patient has the easier task, vs the family caregivers, and you being aware of it, is special. I went thru CABG 10 yrs ago and empathize with your open-heart surgery recovery, wishing you well. At 70, I now need valve repair and another intervention. Not looking FWD to it, but grateful for all the technical options that patients have available. Videos like yours are valuable resources to new patients needing heart surgery. Keep up your videos knowing they benefit others who learn and are comforted by your posted experiences. Hope your 5K is now under 24min?? - Bill
Thank you for the kind words. My wife, kids, and family were awesome during the whole process. I'm 10 months out now and feel like I'm getting close to 100%. I hope your procedure goes well.
Glad you're doing well! I'm about 6 weeks out of my surgery and also have an On-X valve. So far I'm very happy with the results and looking forward to getting back to that state of normality that you're enjoying!
Appreciate you sharing all of your journey and well done on recovery.I will add a heart valve forum below where everyone can get further knowledge and advice from others
Welcome to the survivors world. I had open heart surgery back in 2022 after in December of 2021 I had blurry vision and a low BP of 90/40. It turns out I had endocarditis at some time in my life. I don’t know when or how. I also was diagnosed in 2018 with hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis is a genetic blood disease that affects people of Northern European ancestry. It loads iron into the organs, especially the liver, heart, & brain. I required having a pint of blood taken out of me - at first it was weekly, but now it’s quarterly. I still get chest pains 2 years post surgery. I’m now 63 years old. I look like 40 years old though. I’ve been on Metoprolol for 40 years now. I was not confident in my sternum being fully healed until I was 1.5 years out from OHS. I daily hang from a bar to help my back decompress and my shoulders. Take it easy on exercise. Don’t think you’re Arnold. I have been a weightlifter since age 12. You are never going to be the same as you were pre-surgery. I use 10lb dumbbells nowadays, and I take daily walks. I’m not looking to bench press 475lbs again I my lifetime. But, I’m alive and I look good, so I’m just grateful to God.
Hi Did you have any substantial left ventricular enlargement before valve replacement? If so, has the enlargement reversed more towards normal? Pre vs post ejection fraction?
No significant growth and my ejection fraction was 55-60 before and after surgery. I probably could have postponed surgery another year or two, but I wanted to get it taken care of while I was still feeling good.
She was awesome and did so much. We are actually going to work on a video from her perspective, but that may be a few weeks. She'd be happy to answer any questions. Shoot me an email at williamswoodworks116@gmail.com.
Hey pal. I think my situation is like yours. I currently have a moderate leaky aortic valve. A mildly enlarged aorta root at 4.2cm and ascending aorta at 4.3cm. Waiting on an MRI to find out what kind of valve I have. How did you deal with the stress that you’ll need surgery sooner rather than later ? I’m having a really hard time dealing. Thanks !
I honestly never thought much about it until last year when it was time to meet a surgeon and schedule the surgery. I just accepted early on that I'd have surgery one day and it never crossed my mind. Once I had it scheduled, those couple of months were pretty stressful, but I did lots of research to help calm my nerves.
Im at 13 weeks post. I relate to your nerve pain in the thoracic area. I think I can sense a slow improvement. Do your chest area feel stiff in the morning when you woke up? It feels like it is under the chest muscles for me.
The chest soreness came later for me but it did feel and still does feel strange. It does feel like it is under the muscle sometimes. Mine has mostly gone away or I ignore it at this point.
@@bicuspidaorticvalvereplacement It may be unrelated. But both my shoulders are absolutely whacked lately. Flexibility is not there, and the nerve pain can be pretty bad if I twist my arm/shoulders at the wrong angle. Did you ever have problems with your shoulders? Curious.
I can. I played at month 4 and felt great, but haven't gotten back out there again yet. The weather is getting nice, so I'll be out on the course again soon.
Glad you are continuing to improve. I’ll be 4 months out on the 5th of April and I’m finally starting to get back to normal. I mention you in my prayers daily.
Thank you. I hope your recovery continues to go smoothly.
Jeff - Enjoyed your videos on your journey. The PRE op videos convey important patient defined symptoms that doctors don't always understand in the way that exercising patients experience. Kind of gap between doctors and runners' experience on the shortness of breath and exercise fatigue feelings. Your videos describe it perfectly from a patient's standpoint. In addition, your compassion for your family members supporting you while you are under drugs and they having the tougher job during your surgery is admirable. You can be proud of your kids and wife and vice versa. Sometimes the patient has the easier task, vs the family caregivers, and you being aware of it, is special. I went thru CABG 10 yrs ago and empathize with your open-heart surgery recovery, wishing you well. At 70, I now need valve repair and another intervention. Not looking FWD to it, but grateful for all the technical options that patients have available. Videos like yours are valuable resources to new patients needing heart surgery. Keep up your videos knowing they benefit others who learn and are comforted by your posted experiences. Hope your 5K is now under 24min?? - Bill
Thank you for the kind words. My wife, kids, and family were awesome during the whole process. I'm 10 months out now and feel like I'm getting close to 100%. I hope your procedure goes well.
What a great update! Very happy to hear all of this. I’m also back to normal life. Super full of gratitude as well! ❤
Great to hear!
Hi Jeff, I’m hoping the ticking gets Less and less noticeable, I’m actually noticing it a little less myself. Thank you again for posting man
Thanks for watching. It's strange sometimes when I try to hear the tick and can't, but it's faded into the background now.
Glad you're doing well! I'm about 6 weeks out of my surgery and also have an On-X valve. So far I'm very happy with the results and looking forward to getting back to that state of normality that you're enjoying!
Don't rush it, you'll get there. Hope all is still going well.
Appreciate you sharing all of your journey and well done on recovery.I will add a heart valve forum below where everyone can get further knowledge and advice from others
Thanks for watching. @heartvalvesurgery.com is a great site.
Glad to hear you're improvement!
Thanks!
Welcome to the survivors world. I had open heart surgery back in 2022 after in December of 2021 I had blurry vision and a low BP of 90/40. It turns out I had endocarditis at some time in my life. I don’t know when or how. I also was diagnosed in 2018 with hemochromatosis. Hemochromatosis is a genetic blood disease that affects people of Northern European ancestry. It loads iron into the organs, especially the liver, heart, & brain. I required having a pint of blood taken out of me - at first it was weekly, but now it’s quarterly. I still get chest pains 2 years post surgery. I’m now 63 years old. I look like 40 years old though. I’ve been on Metoprolol for 40 years now. I was not confident in my sternum being fully healed until I was 1.5 years out from OHS. I daily hang from a bar to help my back decompress and my shoulders. Take it easy on exercise. Don’t think you’re Arnold. I have been a weightlifter since age 12. You are never going to be the same as you were pre-surgery. I use 10lb dumbbells nowadays, and I take daily walks. I’m not looking to bench press 475lbs again I my lifetime. But, I’m alive and I look good, so I’m just grateful to God.
Thanks! This is great perspective!
Hi
Did you have any substantial left ventricular enlargement before valve replacement?
If so, has the enlargement reversed more towards normal?
Pre vs post ejection fraction?
No significant growth and my ejection fraction was 55-60 before and after surgery. I probably could have postponed surgery another year or two, but I wanted to get it taken care of while I was still feeling good.
Hi Jeff! My husband is fixing to have this done in 3 weeks. I am curious to hear this from your wife's perspective. How did she handle all this? TIA 😊
She was awesome and did so much. We are actually going to work on a video from her perspective, but that may be a few weeks. She'd be happy to answer any questions. Shoot me an email at williamswoodworks116@gmail.com.
Hey pal. I think my situation is like yours. I currently have a moderate leaky aortic valve. A mildly enlarged aorta root at 4.2cm and ascending aorta at 4.3cm. Waiting on an MRI to find out what kind of valve I have. How did you deal with the stress that you’ll need surgery sooner rather than later ? I’m having a really hard time dealing. Thanks !
I honestly never thought much about it until last year when it was time to meet a surgeon and schedule the surgery. I just accepted early on that I'd have surgery one day and it never crossed my mind. Once I had it scheduled, those couple of months were pretty stressful, but I did lots of research to help calm my nerves.
Im at 13 weeks post. I relate to your nerve pain in the thoracic area. I think I can sense a slow improvement. Do your chest area feel stiff in the morning when you woke up? It feels like it is under the chest muscles for me.
The chest soreness came later for me but it did feel and still does feel strange. It does feel like it is under the muscle sometimes. Mine has mostly gone away or I ignore it at this point.
@@bicuspidaorticvalvereplacement Thanks for the response. It is hard to find people to relate to this.
I just had my chest "pop" during a workout that was a bit startling. Nothing hurt, just louder than others I've had.
@@bicuspidaorticvalvereplacement Wow. That would be a little startling!
@@bicuspidaorticvalvereplacement It may be unrelated. But both my shoulders are absolutely whacked lately. Flexibility is not there, and the nerve pain can be pretty bad if I twist my arm/shoulders at the wrong angle. Did you ever have problems with your shoulders? Curious.
When did your sternal bump shrink?
I still have the bumps from my wires. The scar itself flattened out after a few months, I honestly don't remember how long it took.
Whats normal im still in and out of shelters and different homes it terrible no stability still in uncomfortable pain sucks.
jeff.......gods blessings------PEACE
Thank you
Nice to see your video again. Can you play golf now?
I can. I played at month 4 and felt great, but haven't gotten back out there again yet. The weather is getting nice, so I'll be out on the course again soon.
wow, that's great!!!@@bicuspidaorticvalvereplacement