Aubrey's Guestbook

Aubrey Jones Jr  Keep the habits they teach you and if they did not do the weights and resistance for upper body and the core, look into a gym or online for the routines. Again, start light and go slow. I am using this as a time to increase the weekly exercise time and will try to maintain it. Keep up the good progress.

Aubrey Jones Jr  I responded to Jim below similarly. I never felt bad, just was working way too hard and never knew it. The recovery advancement does slow down but it keeps getting better. If you have the choice for rehab, take it and insure they do the upper body weights and the core exercises at the right times. This was about weeks eight and twelve for me. The stamina comes from walking and the seated bike. The strength from the weights and the resistance bands for the core. I am using this for the time to increase he exercise time every week to three to six hours per week. Trying to make this my new regular routine for health and maintaining weight. Keep it slow and steady and keep healing.

Aubrey Jones Jr  Thank you Susan, keep going well yourself. It is great this side and we are lucky to have traveled this with all our friends here.

Aubrey Jones Jr  Hello Jim. The corner was harder to recognize than I thought it would be. The first one was at week four or so in the home recovery. Pain was better, see of movement was noticeable, dependence on drug and pain support was really low, general movement did not really hurt, just pull or feel swelled mostly

The second is at about the seventh week when I had noticeably more stamina than in a long time. It was the lugging the heavy briefcase through the Chicago airport that was so much easier. Unlike some people, I never felt bad and NEVER felt like it was time to cut my chest open. Therefore I do not feel that much better. What I notice, a lot, is the ease of doing things now. Actually, the ease of doing them is better than it has been in so many years I can not really remember it ever being this easy to exercise and recover after the exercise. The ramp up of the strength is very good. Also, about every two to three weeks, I can still tell the difference and still improving in stamina, strength and overall ease of doing many things that I did not realize I was working so hard at.

Week ten to twelve is good in that the rehab is really kicking in, the strength is really better and the stamina was easily better than before. I started working on the core which was way weaker than anything else after the surgery about then as well.

Have to admit though, the memory seems better and the world was brighter the day I walked out of the hospital. The reduction in my valve area was about 75 percent so the blood flow was about one fourth or one third what it should have been. We adjust to this and do not really notice it. Keep going and think about when you look back, what is easier every two weeks or sons then compare it to right before the surgery. Keep going my friend.

Aubrey Jones Jr  Dan, you are rocking along well. Some perspective from my point of view.

I took the hydro condone, one very three hours and did not wait for it to wear off for about one to one and a half weeks. Then maybe stretched to four or five hours but also started subtituting two ibuprofen for one pain tab a day, usually a morning tablet. Switched back to pain tabs anytime I had a day that I needed to. I was never worried about getting off the drugs and actually the doctors office cautioned me not to ramp down for a week to two since I was considered young for this surgery and young guys have more trouble with pain, so they said stay on it for the first little while.

The cold thing started right after surgery and it was not unusual to see my in the hallways wearing pj bottoms, gown or two and a robe to stay warm during walks. If I got really cold, I would start to shake and if it got too bad, I rode back to the room once or twice in the wheelchair rather than chance passing out or anything like that. The cold natured ness lasted well into 6 to 9 weeks but it gets better every week or so. I was still walking around the house in a sweatshirt even a couple weeks ago. Think it has something to do with the body readjusting to a very different blood flow, like a lot more than it was used to and the regulator has not reset. It takes weeks and sometimes months for the body to reset for something like this.

Getting sleep at night is critical. I used Xannax and a pain tablet every night at about 11 mad then woke up and took another pain tab about 2 to 3 and went right back to sleep. I was never tired from not resting at night. Tammy got me on this routine and it worked for me for the first couple weeks. Even three to four weeks later, I may have been on ibuprofen during the day but still used the pain and Xanax at night insure good sleep. Also, the doctors office had me take a dose of ibuprofen every morning, two tabs, to reduce the inflammation and it helped. I can say it still helps even now, twelve weeks later from cardiac rehab exercises, travel, etc. I average maybe two tabs every one two or three days as needed.

Your doing very well and the hard part is to set the expectation rate slower than you thing it needs to be. Also, be careful with the walking but keeping the heart under 100 should be fine.

Keep me posted bro.