Adam’s Heart Valve Surgery Blog

Blog Topics: Heart Surgery Recovery; Exercise After Heart Valve Surgery; Running; Jogging

In my humble opinion, developing recovery milestones is a critical, often over-looked, element of heart valve surgery recovery. As patients heal following surgery, many experience perceived or actual heart valve complications.

That said, recovery milestones are tangible signs of progress which counter a lurking thought that most patients feel at some point during recovery. That thought is, “I think something is wrong!”

Personally, I developed a series of recovery milestones that I wrote about in a prior blog. So you know, I keep developing these recovery benchmarks even though I had my double heart valve replacement twenty-three months ago.

I am happy to report that I acheived another milestone earlier today. As some of you know, I am currently in Tokyo on a business trip. I awoke to a beautiful day here in Japan - clear skies with the temperature in the high 60’s.

I couldn’t resist… I decided it was time to go for a run before my morning meetings. However, this time, I decided to leave my heart rate monitor behind.

I know this may seem trivial - running after heart surgery without a heart monitor.

But, it isn’t.

For the past year and a half, I have clung to my heart rate monitor, almost like I clung to my blankie when I was three. It’s really quite amazing to see how my heart rate has changed since my surgery, since entering cardiac rehab, since graduating from cardiac rehab and then exercising by myself.

Running after heart surgery used to cause my heart rate to soar to 180 beats per minute. Now, I’m hovering at around 167 BPM once I hit stride. (FYI, it’s common if your heart rate is a little higher following surgery.)

Anyways, the run this morning was great. There is a sense of liberation that occurred as I huffed and puffed through downtown Tokyo. Granted, I’m not Veronika Meyer climbing Mount Everest following heart valve replacement surgery, but you never know!

Now? I’m off for some more sushi!

Plus, it’s time to develop some more recovery milestones.

I hope this help you understand more about running after heart valve surgery.

Keep on tickin,

Adam Pick is the author of The Patient’s Guide To Heart Valve Surgery, a unique book which integrates the clinical facts of heart valve surgery with the personal experiences of an actual heart valve surgery patient. This special book was designed to help patients and caregivers better understand the realities of heart valve surgery (heart valve replacement and heart valve repair), to minimize patient stress and to enhance the patient’s recovery. To learn more about Adam’s heart valve surgery book, click here.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, November 6th, 2007 at 10:49 pm and is filed under Heart Surgery Recovery. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site. Print This Post | EMail This Post.