Darlene's Posts

Hi Everyone — I know that it has been a while since I provided an update …. It is hard to believe that it has been over three months now since my surgery on Sept 2nd !!!! I am back to work on a full time basis and that occurred November 1st !!! I wanted to wait to give everyone an update once my echo cardiogram occurred and I also had a mugga test done as well. With that in mid, I have great news to report …. My valve is perfect no leaking at all !!! According to my cardiologist here in MI this is a rare thing … as in most repairs nothing is perfect …. In my case … I got lucky as I have no leakage at all and my valve is truly the way that god had always intended it to be :) My rhythm has been great as well … every once in a while I will have a PVC here and there (which I can't feel) but the heart is still healing so that is to be expected. The prior two tests that I mentioned also evaluated my ejection fraction (which is a measurement as to how hard the heart is squeezing). I am somewhere between 45% — 51% which is good to average and my cardiologist is very happy with these numbers. I am going to try and take some medication to try and get these numbers up but in the past I haven't been able to tolerate them and it has dropped my blood pressure. I am going to give it another try and see how I do on the medication. If it drops my blood pressure then I will have to stop taking the medication. I continue to walk on a daily basis … I did achieve a personal best a few weeks back as Brad and I completed a 10k walk (alexis did not join us for this one !!!). Just this past Saturday we walked 5 miles outside !!! For those of you that know me…. this is unheard of that I would actually be outside in the cold weather walking …. I have to admit it does come with a few disclaimers …. it has to be at least 42 degrees and the wind can't be blowing and the snow isn't falling … if all of this occurs I am in pretty good shape !!!! I am also continuing to work with my rehabilitation therapist twice a week --- this has been helping quite a bit and I can see a slow progression as to my range of motion on the side of my incision (which has healed very nicely). I will continue to see my cardiologist here in Michigan on a regular basis. She told me yesterday that I don't need to continue to look over my shoulder anymore and that my heart is working more efficiently than it ever has been in my entire life so to go and enjoy life !!! With that being said …. I can't help but look at everyday a bit differently than I did prior to Sept 2nd 2011. I can't put it into words but I feel that when you physically and emotionally go through something this life changing that it leaves an imprint on your soul. Throughout this journey I have been blessed to have so many people in my life that provided me support in so many ways. It has been a very humbling experience and I can't begin to thank all of you but I want you all to know that I will be forever grateful for all of the kind words, thoughts and actions that all of you provided to both Brad and I. This will be my last journal entry for a while …. The next time you hear from me I will be celebrating my one year "birthday" !!! Love to you all — Darlene

Hello Everyone !!! Hard to believe that it has been six weeks since my surgery !!!! I had my Dr's appointment on Wednesday and everything sounds great --- no leaking . I also received my halter monitor results this week. My Dr is thrilled with how I am doing. There was no sign of the VT ---- which is such a relief to both Brad and I It appears that the valve repair has taken away the VT --- I am still having some PVC's but as my Dr said that is nothing that I need to be worried about. So I am not going to worry !!!! The other big news is that I am totally off of my beta blocker (wooohooo) --- keep in mind that I have been on this drug at some level for over 7 years --- this drug kept me in check during that time period but I had some issues with it so I am thrilled that I don't have to be on it !!! My blood pressure is still a little low and I will continue to monitor it four to five times a day and journal it so the Dr can see how I am doing especially since I am off the beta blocker. I have been walking quite a bit and I clocked 4.2 miles one day last week (thanks to Laura my walking buddy that day) --- My goal is to complete a minimum of 3 miles a day on a go forward basis. With the weather turning I will now be walking on the treadmill --- Alexis is totally bummed out with this recent development !!! Maybe we will get a few nice days in the future and she and I will be able to get outdoors again. Still no word on the cardiac rehab …. I will talk to the Dr this week at my appointment. With my recovery going so well I am going to be going back to work this Tuesday --- yep six weeks post surgery --- I am going to take it easy and be doing half days for the next two weeks. I promised Brad, my Dr., and my boss that I would not over do it …. The last thing that I want to happen is to take two steps backwards so I will keep my promise to everyone… including me !!!! Overall, everything is going really well ---- my incisions are healing nicely --- I still have numbness but again that is to be expected and may or may not ever come back --- I guess time will tell. As far as the pain goes I am still getting twinges every once in a while …. I think that it is a gentle reminder that I just had open heart surgery and I need to take it easy !!!! The next big benchmark will be an echo cardiogram in another 8 weeks to see how the heart is pumping --- I will give everyone an update at that time --- hopefully I won't have any setbacks in the meantime that I will need to tell everyone about. Again I want to thank all of you for all of your kind thoughts throughout this health journey. I would not want to wish this upon anyone as it was much much much more difficult than I would have ever imagined …. However, I had such a circle of love around me at all times it made the journey much easier. Love to all of you --- Darlene

Hi Everyone !!! Some days I have to remind myself that it has only been four weeks …. I had one of those days this past weekend as I was walking with my nephew that flew in from Texas to visit and I looked down at my watch and we had been out walking for 45 minutes --- YIKES !!! That was a lot longer than any of my prior walks but I did ok !!! Overall, things have been going pretty good — Here is my latest update from my Dr's visit yesterday …. On the "not so good side of the ledger" ….I am still experiencing what I would describe as discomfort and some numbness from the incisions (still taking ibuprofen and hoping to get to Advil in the next two weeks). I called down to Cleveland this past week and spoke to my nurse practitioner (who is awesome) and she said that the nerves take a while to reconnect and it could be 3 to 6 months so I need to have some patience (something that I don't have an abundance of as most of you know !!!) On the good side of the ledger… my blood pressure is doing better and I have been over 100 on my top number for all of my daily readings --- Dr. would still like for my top number to increase a little bit more but for now there will be no changes in my medications from last week. Dr. has also cleared me for more walks so my goal will now be three walks a day for 30 — 45 minutes per walk. As you might imagine Alexis is very excited at this recent development !!!! I am not doing a formal cardiac rehab program at a hospital at this point just on my own at the house and journaling everything. Incisions are healing very nicely so no issues there :) Dr. listened to my heart and all sounds good and she is still thrilled every time she listens to me. However, I will have a halter monitor in two weeks and this will be a 24 hour monitor so we can see how my rhythm is doing over this time period --- I have saw my Dr. here in MI every week since I have been home (3 visits) and she has heard no VT activity (wooohooo) -- and we also did a EKG on the first visit and no VT at that time so this was positive ---so I will remain cautiously optimistic — My next Dr visit won't be for another two weeks so I will update at that time --- thanks again to everyone for all of your love and support — I also wanted to thank Brad as I couldn't of made it through this without him.... lov you baby !!!! Love to all of you Darlene