Denise's Posts

Thought I'd pop on and say it'll be one year (tomorrow) when I had my surgery for a mechanical mitral valve replacement and then a few days later a pacemaker. I'm taking this as a win even though it has been a challenging year. Many, many things have gone well for me, so I am very grateful. My issues this year seem to be mostly because of good old post surgery inflammation which has led to appointments aplenty with urology, gastro, physical therapy (frozen shoulder), dermatology (already had dermatology issues but then got more)...and I'm sure I'm forgetting something. A little pumphead stuff going on over the year as well. Some issues (urology with kidney stones and gastro) were already there before the surgery, but that good ole inflammation seemed make them worse. I know many of you here have had similar issues. I just wanted to say that I'm glad this community is here, and that everyone here stays as healthy as possible and in good spirits.

Hey all, this has probably been discussed before but thought I'd ask. Have a few of you noticed that chronic things you had going on before the surgery either amplified after the surgery even months down the line (kidney stone for me) and now elevated liver enzymes which weren't a problem before. I don't drink alcohol now and didn't drink more than one to two glasses a month before December 2024 when I stopped drinking alcohol all together. I read somewhere that the inflammation process after having the surgery can amplify these things. I'm not saying that I would've forgone the surgery (mechanical mitral replacement) if I knew about the inflammation possibilities...I'm just more curious on how many of us would fall into this category of having more health issues crop up after the surgery.

I must have hacked off the Warfarin gods. Extremely frustrated. When I went to the hearing aid place yesterday for a six month follow up they cleaned a bit of wax out of my ears. Last night my right ear decided to start bleeding. Only way to stop it was to put a cotton ball in my ear and not take it out. This morning when I took the cotton ball out there was some clotting but still blood that wasn't clotted. It didn't cross my mind to say no to the ear cleaning yesterday because of the warfarin even though it should have. (My surgery was May 9 and my INR levels have gone up and down. I've been going to the doc for the weekly tests. Last test I was at 2.4 INR.) Anyway managed to get blood on my pajamas before I realized what was happening last night. Obviously won't be able to use hearing aids for some time. Good thing my hearing issue is mild. Good news is that my PA wants me to see her this afternoon about the ear. I was going to start cardiac rehab tomorrow but plan to call them and ask if they want me to attempt it if I've got the ear issue.