Jared's Journal

Today was an okay day. I didn’t really have any nausea or major headaches, but after lunch, I did feel like I was having some heart palpitations. I’d get this sinking feeling in my chest for no reason and then I would feel a really heavy heart beat. Never know what to expect or what triggers these abnormal symptoms, I’m still very cautious about what I do.

My morning stats were 124/86/77 and my weight was 188.4. I did two 20 minute walks on the treadmill today. The first one was at 2.0 MPH and my average heart rate was 91. My second walk was from 2.0-2.5 MPH and my average heart rate was 100. I’ve been avoiding walking outside the past couple of days to see if my vision and head issues get better. It seems to be working as I haven’t been as nauseous and my headaches haven’t been that bad.

Not much going on today. Drove around to check out a new shopping area and grab some lunch. My boys have been wanting to ride their bikes, but because I haven’t gotten clearance to do so, I’ve been following them around the neighborhood in my car.

I was able to finish up the Pikachu building kit that my boys started. I happened to find all the missing pieces in a red gift bag. Not sure who put them there or why they were there, but I was happy that I was able to complete the set. Unfortunately, I was sitting on the floor building the kit, so after a while, my back started to really hurt. The pressure from hunching over probably wasn’t the best thing for my chest discomfort either.

Overall, it was a good day with the family. I’d say today was a 6 and my energy was a 5.

Tomorrow I see my primary care doctor’s assistant. Hopefully I’ll be able to get some advice on what’s going on with my head and eyes. Looking forward to Tuesday as I start my cardiac rehab orientation and see my cardiologist. I could really use some positive news. All this unknowing and second guessing can really wear on you.

The way that my recovery is going reminds of a famous movie quote. “Life is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” Each day is different as I never know how I’m going to feel.

My morning stats today were 127/86/77 and my weight was 187.8. My BP in the morning is consistently higher than in the evening. My morning average over the past week or so has been around 127/85/76, while my evening average is around 112/78/83. We’ll see what my cardiologist says on Tuesday.

Today got off to an early start as my older son had a 10:00 soccer game. I’m still apprehensive and concerned about my vision and head issues, so I’m walking slow, steady, and deliberate.

After the game, we did quite a bit of driving as we went to a friend’s house to drop something off and then drove to go get some lunch. I’m not having any issues driving, so that’s good.

Towards the afternoon, my eyes felt a bit tired, but I wasn’t experiencing any headaches or nausea, so I’ll take it. Tried to watch Ice Age: Collision Course with the kids, but I fell asleep in the middle for a little bit. After the movie, I worked on some LEGOs with the kids. Got a bit frustrated because I couldn’t find some pieces needed to put together the giant Pikachu set that my older son opened up. There’s nothing worse than trying to put something together and have missing pieces.

After dinner, we had a nice Zoom chat with my family. It’s nice to get to see everyone once a month or so and catch up. Thanks to my wife, Stacey, for setting these meetings up.

I got one walk in today. Because of my eye and head issues I’ve had the past few days, I decided to try walking on the treadmill to see how I feel. Since I’m pretty much just staring at the wall or the treadmill, I won’t have to change my focus much. I only did a 15:00 minute walk at 2.0 MPH. My average heart rate was a bit high at 97. I felt fine during and after the walk.

Overall, today wasn’t too bad. No major headaches and no real nausea. I still have that tingling on the left side of my body and what feels like a lump in my chest. Not sure what is causing the tingling, but the lump feels like when my anxiety is pretty bad. I’d say that today was a 7 and my energy was a 5. A slightly better day today than the day before.

I’m looking forward to meeting with my PCP on Monday afternoon to discuss what’s been going on. Hopefully it’s nothing too concerning or serious. My cardiac rehab orientation is on Tuesday morning and I meet with my cardiologist on Tuesday afternoon. Hoping to get some good guidelines on how much activity I can do from cardiac rehab. I also hope to see some improvement in my numbers from the limited echo I had on Friday.

Thank you all for reading my journal and providing me with your thoughts and opinions. I really appreciate your input and feedback. This community is awesome!

Today was a pretty busy day. I didn’t really have the time or energy for too many dedicated walks. I’m really worried about my vision and head issues. I’m still not sure what’s going on, so I’m worried about doing much of anything.

My morning stats were 124/87/72 and my weight was 187.4.

Walk 1) 0.39 miles walked in 8:57 with a 86 average heart rate

This morning I had my limited echo. I believe that they were just checking to see what me EF is now. I’m hoping that it has gotten a little better. I probably won’t get the results until next week though, so this will be a long weekend waiting.

After the echo, I had to run some errands. Had to go to an art supply store and make a Target run. The big thing is that I haven’t had any issues driving. Walking around the stores and everything is fine as well. The only issue that I noticed was when I was looking around the medicine isle for some more all natural Dramamine. The rapid eye movement of looking for something started to give me a headache.

When I was driving, I noticed that I was squinting a lot. Like it was too bright outside. When I got home, I had a sharp pain behind my right eye for a minute or so. I felt a bit better after taking some Tylenol. I spent the rest of the afternoon just resting. I even took a little nap.

Other than my eye and head issues, I’ve been experiencing a weird tingling sensation that I feel on the left side of my head and down my left shoulder. It doesn’t last very long. It’s kind of like a chill. It’s just a feeling that I have.

The cardiologist hasn’t responded to my email yet. I sent a similar message to my primary care doctor and he wants me to go and see him or his physicians assistant next week for an evaluation. I was able to get an appointment with his PA on Monday, so we’ll see what they say.

I worked on some more LEGOS today, so my back and shoulder starting to feel tight and tense, so I decided to take a Tylenol and the muscle relaxer again for bed. I’m still nervous about going to sleep because I’m afraid I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night. I went to bed later today because I wanted to be more tired. I didn’t go to bed until 00:30 and woke up around 06:57. I fell asleep again and woke up for the day around 08:00.

Today wasn’t too bad, with the exception of my eye and head issues. I’d say that today was a 6 and my energy was a 5. I’m just really apprehensive about doing too much or walking outside due to how I’ve been feeling.

Not feeling much better today. I’m still having some “chest” discomfort. Not sure if I’m hungry or nauseous. Have a mild headache and don’t like looking at bright objects, aka outside. It felt better to close my eyes. I took some all natural Dramamine and a Tylenol to see if that helped my nausea and headache around 12:30. Towards the afternoon, I did start feeling a bit better.

My morning stats today are 117/89/74 with a weight of 187.4. My weight has really plateaued and stabilized as I’ve bounced between 187.8 and 187.0 these past five days.

I tried to mix it up today with my walks to see if it made me feel any better. I opted to go for shorter, more frequent walks. The walks themselves weren’t too bad. On some of them, I still had that disconnected feeling where I can see myself walking and moving my arms and legs, but it doesn’t really feel like I’m walking or moving my arms and legs. It’s kind of a weird feeling.

Walk 1) 0.40 mile walk in 9:14 with a 87 average heart rate
Walk 2) 0.40 mile walk in 9:12 with a 91 average heart rate
Walk 3) 0.39 mile walk in 9:12 with a 89 average heart rate

I still wasn’t feeling too great and rested most of the day. I’ve also been spending more time helping my wife with the virtual learning. My younger son has been really bad the past few days. He’s been absolutely refusing to do some relatively simple assignments and we’ve been having to deal with these meltdowns. Of all the years to have him do virtual learning, it was his first year of kindergarten at public school. The year that they kind of lay the foundation of how to act in school, focus, pay attention, and listen to teachers. Our older son is doing okay in virtual second grade. He has had some attention and focus issues, but for the most part does what he needs to do.

I wasn’t feeling too hungry at lunch, but forced myself to eat. For dinner, you’d think that I hadn’t eaten in days as I devoured my salad. I was able to drive the family to go pick-up dinner and over to my older son’s soccer game with no issues.

I’m starting to wonder if there’s something wrong with my heart since I notice all these vision issues when I walk and not when I’m sitting there driving. I’m hoping that my headaches, chest discomfort, and nausea are from some issues with my vision and vertigo and has nothing to do with my heart. These feelings that I’m having are probably kicking up my anxiety which would only make the feelings worse. I’m starting to feel that lump in the middle of my chest. I usually get this feeling when I’m really anxious.

I tried to go bed at a little early again. I’m worried about falling asleep because I’m afraid that I’m going to wake up in the middle of the night. After going to bed around 23:45, I suddenly woke up around 00:37. My heart rate shot up to 117 and I had some numbness in my left arm. There was no pain or discomfort, it just felt like my left arm fell asleep. I was able to fall back asleep relatively quickly and woke up again around 06:37. After taking my morning stats I was able to fall asleep again until 08:30.

I have a partial echo on day 21 to check my EF%. I’m really hoping to get some good news when I get the results. Pre-op, my EF was recorded as 60% with severe regurgitation. However day 0 and day 4 echos showed that my EF dropped down to 25-30%. It wasn’t very comforting when I’m trying to stay positive and the PA keeps saying that I have heart failure. The electrophysiologist was concerned with low EF% and was thinking of sending me home with a life vest, but my surgeon said that he wasn’t concerned at all. My surgeon’s thought process is that my EF is closer to 35% because the regurgitation has been fixed and all the blood is flowing in the right direction.

I still haven’t heard back from my cardiologist regarding my concerns with dizziness and vertigo.

The morning was probably a 4, but the afternoon was a 6. Energy wise, I was being very cautious and rested as much as possible, so I’d rate today as a 4.

The way that I’ve been feeling the past couple of days is really starting to get to me. I’m guessing that it has something to do with my eyes and head because I’m feeling somewhat similar to after I get off of a roller coaster or sit as a passenger on a windy road. However, my mind is worrying that it has something to do with my heart and that it’s failing me. Logically, I know that my heart is in a better place after my MV repair, but I’m worried because of how I’ve been feeling these past few days.

My morning stats were pretty high at 130/88/79 with a weight 187.8.

I did two walks today. I’m being very cautious and deliberate now because I don’t want to make how I’m feeling any worse. I’m trying to focus on objects far away and to not turn my head too much.

Walk 1) 0.90 mile walk in 27:50 with a 86 average heart rate
Walk 2) 1.40 mile walk in 30:50 with a 98 average heart rate

My first walk was interrupted because I ran into one of my co-workers who lives nearby. We caught up for a little bit before I continued on my walk.

When I move my head a lot or change my point of focus, whether I’m walking or sitting down, I start feeling a little nauseous and start getting a headache. I feel better when I’m able to sit and rest and focus my sight on a specific area. This is just annoying. I was able to drive my car to go get dinner. I didn’t have any issues with my vision while driving, so that’s good. It’s probably because when I’m driving, I’m focused on the cars in front of me that don’t really move all that much in relation to where I’m at since we’re all moving at the same speed in the same direction.

I have been noticing that I get this little tingling feeling down the left side of my body. That’s kind of annoying as well. Not sure what’s going on there. I experienced this when I had the AV block in the hospital, but it went away for a bit. I seem to be noticing it more lately.

I sent an email to my cardiologist reporting my vision, nausea, and dizzy issues. Waiting to hear back from them soon to see what they say. I don’t think that it’s anything to do with my heart and that it’s all in my head. Hopefully I’m right.

I stopped taking my evening dose of muscle relaxers and Tylenol. I was just taking it as a precaution the past week or so. Since I’ve been without pain or muscle tightness, I thought I should probably stop. Not sure if this had any impact, but I didn’t sleep very well at all tonight.

I thought that I’d get to bed earlier than normal today because of how I’ve been feeling. May be I haven’t been getting enough rest and that’s why my eyes are acting the way they are. Anyway, I went to bed around 23:30, but woke up suddenly around 00:30. I was able to go back to sleep relatively quickly, but woke up again around 01:30. This time I wasn’t able to go back to sleep as easily and got up for an hour or so to make myself tired. My mind is racing and I’m worried about my heart. Around 02:30, I manage to fall back asleep, only to wake up again around 04:00. After calming myself down and falling back to sleep for the third time, I woke up for the day around 08:30. Here’s to hoping that day 20 is better than I slept on day 19.

Overall, today was a 5 and my energy was a 5. I’m gonna try and switch it up a bit on day 20 to see if it helps me any.

Today wasn’t a very good day. They say that there’s ups and downs in your recovery from heart surgery and this was one of the downs. The good news is that I didn’t notice any arrhythmia or palpitations.

It all kind of started last night after dinner. I wasn’t feeling too great after dinner. Since I’d been feeling pretty good, I was guessing that it was just some indigestion. However, any uneasy feeling or discomfort with my chest area gets me worrying about my heart.

After going to bed, my chest and stomach felt better. However, I was a bit light headed when standing up in the morning. My bad morning started when I first took my BP. My first reading around 08:28 was 147/91/77. This had me concerned a bit. My second reading about 10 minutes later was 127/72/79. My weight today was 187.4.

I still wasn’t feeling too good, so I was planning on resting today. However, my younger son wanted to go out and ride his bike around 10:00, so I decided to try and go for a walk. I only did about 0.67 miles in 15:44 with a 90 average heart rate before I decided to cut it short. I wasn’t feeling all that great during my walk, a little bit nauseous.

After my walk, I decided to have some breakfast. After lunch, I still wasn’t feeling that great and I was feeling a bit tired, so I tried to take a nap. I woke myself up and decided to check my BP again around 13:30. My BP this time was 100/66/84. My BP is not normally this low, so it has me worried. I’m wondering if my nausea and not feeling well is due to the low BP or something else. My anxiety is growing.

The day took a scary turn after dinner. My boys wanted to go ride their bikes after dinner, so I decided to drive to the local middle school because they wanted to ride their bikes in the parking lot and around the track. Since I was feeling better than I was in the morning, I decided to try and get another walk in today. During the walk, I felt fine. I was able to 1.38 miles in 32:00 with a 97 average heart rate. It was after the walk that really scared me. I was finishing my final lap around the track and went to step on the start/stop line. When I stepped on the line, I took a quick 180 turn to my left and started to walk back to the car. While I was walking back, I was looking down at my phone. When I was getting close to the parking lot, I looked up to step off the curb and got really dizzy. I was able to walk the 30 feet or so back to my car like a drunken sailor. After sitting in my car for a minute or so, I started to feel better. I’ve never had a dizzy spell like this before and it scared me a bit. I’m wondering if it was caused by my spinning really quickly, my vision focus while walking, or if something’s wrong with my heart. My anxiety is growing even more.

Whenever you talk to doctors or nurses, they always tell you to look out for symptoms like feeling lightheaded, dizzy, or chest pressure. At what point do you call the nurse line or go to the hospital when experiencing one of these symptoms? Do you call when it occurs frequently, lasts for a long time, or when you’re resting? I’ve been getting lightheaded more frequently after standing up, but the nurse said that it is common and not to worry.

Another thing that I’ve noticed is that I haven’t been feeling right in the head ever since my surgery two and half weeks ago. I feel like my vision is taking a split second to catch up and focus when I move my head. It’s almost like my vision changed after surgery. I suffer from motion sickness and am wondering if my minor bouts of nausea are caused by my vision and head issues or if it’s something to do with my heart. Has anyone else experience these vision or head issues after surgery?

Overall, today was probably a 5 and my energy was a 4. Here’s to hoping that tomorrow is better.

Today was another decent day. It wasn’t perfect, but still pretty good.

My morning stats today were 113/69/76 and my weight was 187.0. I’m happy to see my BP and weight stabilize. Let’s hope I can keep it up for the long term.

Based on how I’ve felt the past couple of days, I decided to try and up my walk duration and distance today. I’m not sure if it’s what I had for lunch or if I was pushing myself a bit too much, but I didn’t feel too great during my second walk. I had a little bit of stomach discomfort, my heart rate was pretty high, and it was a bit warmer.

Walk 1) 1.33 miles walked in 28:24 with a 93 average heart rate
Walk 2) 1.41 miles walked in 30:10 with a 103 average heart rate
Walk 3) 1.67 miles walked in 36.14 with a 98 average heart rate

I haven’t been waking up as early as I have the past couple of weeks. If I did wake up early, then I was able to go to sleep again. Today I felt a little tired in the afternoon, but didn’t take a nap. I don’t want to throw off my sleep cycle too much. I pretty much just stayed home, took my walks, and rested. Nothing exciting happened today. Overall, I’d say today was a 7 and my energy was a 7.

Everyday is getting better. With each good day comes a more positive outlook and more confidence. Still being cautious to not do too much, but feeling good to try to do more.

My morning stats were 122/80/78 and my weight was 187.6. I’m glad to see that my blood pressure is staying close to normal. My evening BP is better than my morning BP though.

Due to my lack of walks on Saturday, I walked a bit more today. I even walked around Target today. I tracked about 0.34 miles walked in Target, but there’s a lot of stopping and looking around at stuff. My third walk of the day was different because I ran into an old friend of mine. We were talking about it and we met in the second grade and went to school together for all but one or two years all the way through high school. We lost touch for years after high school, but re-connected about three years ago when I moved to Texas. Turns out that we live in the same housing track. Anyway, I pretty much just paced back and forth to get more steps in while we caught up a little bit and my boys rode their bikes around the track.

Walk 1) 1.03 miles walked in 21:21 with a 93 average heart rate
Walk 2) 1.03 miles walked in 22:49 with a 94 average heart rate
Walk 3) 1.33 miles walked in 41:39 with a 94 average heart rate

We just ran some errands today to get some lunch and try some new recipes. A fairly relaxing day with the family. Overall, today was a 9 and my energy was an 8.

Feeling better with each passing day. Dreading the day I have a setback, but I can’t let that stop me. Just gotta keep going forward, one step at a time. Keeping it really slow as well as I don’t want to overdo it.

My morning stats were 121/91/72 and my weight was 188.8. I was only able to get one dedicated walk in today because today is Saturday and the first games of the soccer season are here. My walk was a little different as well because I walked to and from my friend’s house to sign a farewell card for one of our teammates. I paused the tracking when I got there and started it up again when I left.

Walk 1) 1.07 miles walked in about 24:12 with a 96 average heart rate

We made Costco run in the morning to pick up supplies and return some stuff. Once again, I rode around in the little electric shopping card. Not as quick as Target’s carts, but good enough. So when I was in the hospital, they wouldn’t let me order tilapia because I said that I had a salmon allergy. Even though the two types of fish are completely different, they wouldn’t let me order the tilapia. So I ended up getting some tilapia from Costco to cook at home. Still a little bitter about that for some reason. Lol. It amazes me that it’s almost impossible to leave Costco without spending at least $100. We went there to buy some milk, fruit, and veggies. Ended up leaving with some clothes, fruits, veggies, fish, milk, cereal, snacks, and a bunch of other stuff we weren’t intending on getting.

Ended up cooking the tilapia at home for both lunch and dinner. Tried two different recipes that were both pretty good. It’s not restaurant quality, but probably has a lot less sodium.

My younger son had his game at 14:45 and my older son had his game at 16:00. I was intending to just sit there and watch the game, but it’s so hard to not get involved and cheer on the team and root for your kids. I think the wife may leave me in the car for the next game. Lol. I made sure to just sit there and watch the games and I brought an umbrella to keep a little cooler. My wife got to experience my pain when she had to pull the wagon loaded with about 110 lbs worth of kids, water, and chairs through grass to the game fields. I felt really bad because I just carried my umbrella and one folding chair, but I have that 10 lb lift/push/pull limitation.

After the game, we made a run to Wal-mart to return a present that my younger son got for his birthday. The electric carts at Wal-mart are by far the slowest. He wasn’t able to find anything that he wanted to exchange it for, so we ended up getting some jello, pudding, toothpaste, and bubble bath for the boys. Okay, fine. Some of the jello and pudding was for me. ;)

The surgical glue and the scabs are starting to fall off of my chest incisions. The one in the groin is still there though. The bruising is getting a little better each day. I’m able to more comfortably sleep on my right side at night now.

Each day is getting better. I’m starting to feel more normal each day. Overall, today is 8 and my energy was about an 8.

Happy 2-week heartiversary to me! Each day without any issues brings more confidence and positive emotions that go a long way to feeling better.

My morning stats were 124/82/79 and my weight was 188.8. My weight is starting to stabilize a bit. Can’t wait to get cleared for more rigorous exercise to try to lose some weight. Ideally, I should be around 175, but I’d be happy with 180.

Walk 1) 0.86 miles walked in 19:48 with a 91 average heart rate
Walk 2) 0.85 miles walked in 19:16 with a 93 average heart rate
Walk 3) 0.86 miles walked in 19:46 with a 97 average heart rate
Walk 4) 0.52 miles walked

My fourth walk of the day was to walk to a local park for my younger son’s first soccer practice of the season. I forgot to shut off my tracking to see what my heart rate and time was. Just sat and watched the practice and helped to some administration stuff for the team. I was supposed to be the head coach this season, but with my recovery, I’m an assistant coach at the most. Waiting to get medical clearance before I try to do anything more.

Today was more of the same, just resting and walking. Right leg incision is still sore, but it seems to be getting a little better each day.

Overall, today was probably an 8 and my energy was about a 7.

Today wasn’t too bad. Better than yesterday. I’m still taking it cautious though and focusing on not overdoing it. Mentally was much better. Gaining some more confidence after yesterday.

My morning stats are 114/81/75 and my weight was 188.2.

Walk 1) 0.86 miles walked in 18:59 with a 87 average heart rate
Walk 2) 0.86 miles walked in 20:42 with a 94 average heart rate
Walk 3) 0.86 miles walked in 18:48 with a 95 average heart rate

I’ve been focusing more on resting each day. However, I’m also spending more time each day sitting at our dinner table. I do this to force myself to sit more upright instead of leaning back against something. This is causing my back and shoulders to be a bit tighter by the end of the day, but it’s also forcing me to gradually go back to normal.

Today was my younger son’s 6th birthday, so I got up a little earlier than I wanted to. I was a little tired after my morning walk, so I decided to try and take a nap. Ended up sleeping for about an hour.

After my boys virtual school was done for the day, my younger son went through and opened all of the presents that friends and family sent or gave him. He got a lot of good presents that he really likes (LEGO sets, a bow and arrow set, electronic ninja sword set, books, and games). He ended up with a duplicate LEGO set, so he wanted to go exchange it at Target.

Did our Target run to exchange his toy. I didn’t want to overdo it, so I rode around in one of those electric shopping carts. Like most Target runs, we ended up staying there for about an hour and buying a bunch of groceries and stuff we didn’t originally plan to get.

The groin incision is still sore though. Mostly due to the bruising moving down my leg. All the other incisions are fine, just a bit itchy. There’s a pretty big bump underneath the three that went though muscle. That’ll be interested to try and work out later once the incisions have healed.

Energy wise, I’d say I was at a 6 today. Today was a good day though mentally and physically.

Overall today was okay. It wasn’t really a good day and it wasn’t a bad day. All day today, I was being very cautious with what I did and how I felt. I woke up really early this morning (06:00) due to my mind racing and cardiac depression episode. As the morning and day went on, I started to feel better and gain a little confidence. That confidence and peace of mind really helps.

My stats this morning are 124/83/77 and my weight was 189.2. My surgeon wants me to watch my BP pretty closely. If it trends to stay high in the 130 range, they want me to up my BP meds. They didn’t seem overly concerned with my arrhythmia, especially since I was asymptomatic.

Walk 1) 0.78 miles walked in 21:52 with a 93 average heart rate
Walk 2) 0.86 miles walked in 23:01 with a 95 average heart rate
Walk 3) 22:00 minutes walked at 2.0 mph on the treadmill with a 97 average heart rate

During each walk, I was very self conscious about everything that I was feeling. The walks themselves weren’t too bad. I took it really slow because I didn’t want to over exert myself and trigger an arrhythmia. All day today, I took it pretty easy as I didn’t want another setback.

Incisions are healing well. Some of the surgical glue is starting to come off. The biggest issue I’m having is the incision near my groin. This one by far is the worst. The incision itself isn’t bad. It’s the severe bruising around it that’s bad. I have some slight numbness to the touch near the incision and some slight pain that’s starting to move down my upper thigh. I can really feel it when I take a step forward with my left foot and my right quad starts to stretch as my right leg extends backwards. On the pain scale, it’s only a 2 or so. It’s not debilitating, it’s more annoying.

Finished my second LEGO project of my recovery. Helped my boys put together their own sets. They’re not allowed to play with or touch my sets. Lol. The older one is working on a 12-inch tall Pikachu while the younger one is working on some Spider-Man sets he got for his birthday.

I spent most of the day just resting and playing on my iPad and phone. Got some time in on the new Avengers game in as well.

The sucky part of all this worry about heart arrhythmia is that I start second guessing every little thing. If you’re hungry, you’re worrying about your heart. If you have some indigestion and need to burp, you’re worried about your heart. Everything is so closely packed in there that sometimes it’s hard to tell. That makes you worry more, which in turn aggravates your stomach. It’s a viscous mental cycle.

I did get really tired around 18:00 after dinner. Not sure if it’s because I woke up really early or didn’t take a nap. Trying not to think too much into it. Energy wise, I’d say today was a 6.

My Day 11 bout with arrhythmia and an episode of aFib have left me in a diminished mental state.

When I was in the hospital the first few days after surgery, I remember having similar thoughts, especially when I had the AV block on post op days 3-5. I remember having this feeling of helplessness. I was worried that may be something went wrong during surgery, that the repair failed. Being at the hospital and constantly monitored 24/7 was reassuring though. It allowed me to ask questions of the medical professionals as to what they see and if they think I’m getting better.

Having these thoughts at home is a lot tougher to deal with though. When I developed the arrhythmia and especially when I went into aFib, my mind started to race. Those same worries and anxieties came flooding back. I had these feelings of impending doom. I had this sense that my heart was just sinking into my chest and all the blood flow was going with it. I was afraid to go to sleep because I was afraid that I wouldn’t wake up.

I went to bed around 00:00 and didn’t have too hard a time going to sleep. However, I woke up this morning around 06:00 and I couldn’t shut my mind off. My mind is hyper aware of any kind of feeling in my chest. My mind wants to second guess every reading that I get. The obsession over constantly checking my numbers to see if there’s something wrong is starting to get to me. Before day 10, I was fine. After that setback though, I feel like I’m questioning everything. When I’m walking, I’m wondering what lightheadedness or dizziness feels like and if I’ve experience mild forms of it. I wonder if certain feelings are cause for alarm. I know that I’m totally overthinking things and over analyzing things.

This depression is very difficult for me and my wife to deal with. I know that she’s concerned and wants to help and fix what I’m feeling. However, it gets frustrating to me when I tell her how I feel and she gives me a bunch of suggestions and reasons why I shouldn’t feel this way. I know that she has the best intentions and that she wants to help, but sometimes it feels like it’s making it worse. The worst part of it is is that I can see the pain, frustration, and helplessness in her face and it kills me to see her that way. I want to make her frustrations go away. She just has a very hard time understanding and relating to how I feel.

The worse part of this is that mentally and logically, I know that I’m in a better place after my surgery. I know that my heart is functioning better than it was before because the regurgitation is now gone. Physically, I feel fine. I don’t feel any heart palpitations or anything this morning. However, emotionally it’s not as easy to deal with. This morning, I was really anxious just taking my blood pressure, afraid to see what numbers show up. This is hard to deal with because it has to do with my heart and I can’t see what’s going on in there. I’m trying to stay positive. I’m looking forward to the day where I get cleared to do more. I’m looking forward to the day that my echocardiogram comes back with signs of improvement. It’s the helplessness I feel that even after I feel like I’m doing all the right things, that my body will not respond they way I want it to.

This was a bad day with with lots of ups and downs. This was the worse day I’ve had since I’ve been home. My morning issues with arrhythmia and especially the bout of aFib have really messed me up. By around 14:00 or so, I believe that my arrhythmia had stopped, but that still didn’t leave me feeling all that great. I felt like I was back in day 2 of my recovery where I was really cautious about everything that I did. I didn’t want to do anything to cause my heart to have another arrhythmia.

I was able to force myself to do three walks today. Because of how I was feeling today, I slowed myself way down and scaled everything back.

Walk 1) 0.78 miles walked in 17:24 with a 91 average heart rate
Walk 2) 0.39 miles walked in 9:13 with a 93 average heart rate
Walk 3) 0.65 miles walked in 20:34 with a 92 average heart rate

My third walk was much different because I just paced up and down my back alley while my youngest one tried to learn how to skateboard. About 5 minutes in, he fell of his board pretty hard and scraped his knee. I had to call the wife to come get him and console him as I’m not supposed to pick him up due to my lifting restriction. I felt really bad as I felt powerless to help him in his time of need. After my wife took him in to take care of him, the older one jumped at the chance to ride the skateboard. The skateboard is the first thing that the younger one has gotten that the older one doesn’t have and the younger one doesn’t like to share that often. Needless to say, after my day 10 skateboard mishap, I avoided the skateboard and tried to socially distance myself from it.

I didn’t have much appetite for lunch as I was worried about my heart. By dinner, I was hungry and had a better appetite. Energy wise, today was a 3.

Man, what a morning today was. I woke up a little more tired than I have been these past few days. I went about and did my normal routine. When it came time to check my blood pressure, that’s when things got interesting. When I first took it at 08:06, it was 124/83/72. Pretty decent and normal. However, there was a new little indicator that I’ve never seen before. It said that it detected an irregular heart beat. This scared me as I haven’t noticed anything since Days 3-4 when I was in the hospital with the AV block. I took my blood pressure again at 08:10 and my reading was now 152/99/78 with an irregular heart beat.

I’ve been trying to calm myself down all morning and trying to relax. However, my mind is starting to worry and my anxiety is starting to pick up. I had this lumpy feeling in the middle of my chest. My heart feels like it’s beating harder. I’m feeling kind of disconnected or numb. I feel blah. It’s a really weird sensation that’s hard to describe.

I went for a little walk this morning and I just didn’t feel normal. I was almost like I can see my arms and legs moving, but I couldn’t feel them. I mean I can feel them because I felt every step I took, but it just didn’t feel right. It was hard to not think about my heart rate and whether everything was okay. When you feel this way in the hospital, it’s calming to know that you’re hooked up to monitors and they’re checking everything. At home, it’s a completely different experience. You start second guessing everything you feel. You start feeling for any little thing that may be wrong.

I called the nurse line for some help and guidance. They told me to continue to monitor my blood pressure and that if it trends too high that I need to change the dosage of Losartan that I’m taking. So far, my blood pressure seems to want to come down, but every time I take it, I get anxious wondering what my numbers will be. As of 10:30, my blood pressure is much better at 116/69/79. But now I’m wondering if it’s too low. Ugh. The overthinking this stuff is too much sometimes.

Today’s stats were 116/80/73 and my weight was 188.0.

Walk 1) 1.45 miles walked in 31:03 with a 95 average heart rate
Walk 2) 1.37 miles walked in 25:27 with a 98 average heart rate

My second walk of the day was with my boys. The older one was riding his bike, while the younger one was trying to learn how to ride his new skateboard that he got for his birthday a couple of days ago. Due to this, I was doing a lot of back and forth walking and stopping to help the little one. On the way home, I had the bone headed idea to try and show my older son how to ride the skateboard. It wasn’t pretty. I ended up falling and rolling onto my left side and eventually on my back when the board stopped and I didn’t. I’ll probably feel this one tomorrow.

Other than the two walks, I played frisbee with the kids for about 10 minutes outside. I pretty much just stood there. Whenever they had a bad throw, I would have to walk over and bend down to pick up the frisbee. Probably not the best idea, but I managed. It was still pretty hot, so we didn’t stay out very long.

I’m glad that it’ll start cooling down later this week. Yesterday, my smart switch that controlled my ceiling fan died. I was able to disconnect the power supply in the wall, but I’m not able to go get a replacement and I’m not really wanting to deal with electrical issues in my current state of being.

With the boys back in school again tomorrow after a four-day weekend, I’ll be staying in all day and resting, except for my walks. Thank you everyone who commented on driving restrictions. I’m not planning on driving until I have to go to my limited echocardiogram on September 18th. It’ll be 24 miles or so round trip and I plan on taking local streets the entire way.

Overall, I was a little tired in the afternoon. I’d say my energy level today was about a 6. The past few days it was closer to an 8.

Today was a pretty relaxing, family hang out day. My morning stats were 121/82/76 and my weight was 188.2. I’m putting on a little weight that I lost from my surgery. Mostly due to eating more full meals and a lot of fruit versus what I had in the hospital. Appetite is back with a vengeance. Lol. Trying balance my meals out at home. It’s hard to get a gauge on how much sodium is put into foods. Trying to make healthier selections overall.

Sleep wise was good. I really think that I’m getting better sleep now than I did before. I’m waking up more rested and not feeling like I want to go back to sleep. I’m also noticing that I’m not waking up in the middle of the night. When I do wake up the first time, I have a little bit of dread looking at my watch because I’m afraid that it’s only going to be like 02:00. I’m pleasantly surprised that it’s usually around 07:00.


We drove around a bit today, just to get out of the house. I’m sitting around being a passenger. Went and grabbed some In-and-Out for the boys and the wife and I got some Chipotle. I’ve been getting into the habit of making two meals out of everything, so I only ate half and will eat the other half for lunch tomorrow.

So a big question that I’ve been trying to get answers to is when are we allowed to drive again. Most of the information I’ve found says that you can drive after 4-6 weeks, but I’m not sure if that’s for people who have had a sternotomy or for all of us due to the potential stress and shock of driving.

Exercise wise, I only walked twice today. Based on a lot of the feedback that I’ve been receiving on previous posts, I was wondering if I was pushing it a bit too fast. Walk 1) 1.05 miles walked in 19:39 with a 93 average heart rate. Walk 2) 1.28 miles walked in 24:46 with a 99 average heart rate. On my second walk, I did feel like I was walking at a pretty fast pace. This was obviously causing my heart rate to be a bit faster than I’d like. I decided to slow it down. When you’re listening to music and you’re in the groove, it’s kind of hard to slow it down sometimes. The only think that I noticed was that towards the end of my second walk, my hands felt like they were getting a little bit swollen. When I got back from the hospital, I switched back to my metal ring because the silicone one I wore was too loose. I wasn’t swollen enough that I couldn’t get my metal ring off my finger, but it was a little harder to get off.

For the next couple of days, I think I’m going to cut down to two longer walks. It’s still pretty warm here in Frisco, TX. Monday is forecasted to be 93 and Tuesday is 91. Thunderstorms and rain in the forecast for Wednesday and Thursday, so I may need to walk on the treadmill those two days. From Friday on, the weather is going to drop down to the upper-70s to mid-80s. I think I’ll up my walks next weekend.

I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to my cardiac rehab. This unknowing of if I’m pushing it too hard or not is hard for me. I’m desperately trying to find the balance between being helpful and hurtful. I’m hoping that I’ll be able to come out of my first few rehab sessions with some idea of how long I can walk and what a good heart rate is. My cardiac rehab orientation is scheduled for Tuesday, September 22nd.

I have a limited echocardiogram scheduled for Friday, September 18th. I have my two week follow-up with my cardiologist on Tuesday, September 22nd. I’m really hoping that my heart shows some signs of positive remodeling and that my EF% is getting better. Like others have said, there’s some anxiety and anticipation when you have these tests scheduled.

I really appreciate all the feedback that I’ve been given. The fact that some of you read my journal and comment on it is humbling.

So after lunch and stuff, I really took it easy. In total, I only did 3 walks today. Walk 1) 0.73 miles walked in 14:57 with a 89 average heart rate. Walk 2) 0.74 miles walked in 14:26 with a 96 average heart rate. Walk 3) 0.74 miles walked in 14:34 with a 99 average heart rate.

I need to make sure that I take it really slow when standing up. That’s when I notice I get lightheaded for a few seconds.

Pain is still 0-1. It feels a lot better to talk. I don’t have to take deliberate breaths when talking like I did in the hospital. My voice still sounds a bit funny to me though.

So here’s where it gets interesting. I was told that everyday, I should walk multiple times a day. I should slowly ramp up my walking time and distance as tolerable. I was told that time is better than distance and to walk at a conversation pace. The first day at home, I was doing 0.38 mile walks four times a day, which took me 9-10 minutes to complete. The second day, I increased my walk to 0.53 mile walks four times a day, which took me 11-12 minutes to complete. The third day, I increased my walk to 0.74 mile walks three-four times a day, which takes me 14-15 minutes to complete. My average heart rate has gone above 100 only once. I’m not short of breath and I’m by no means walking fast. I’m walking what I would describe as my normal pace. The route that I take is flat with may be a 6 ft elevation change. I honestly feel like I’m not even pushing myself and could go twice as long. I’m shutting it down early because I feel that I should so that I don’t overdo it. Here’s my dilemma, do I continue to increase my distance or time walked each day or cap it? I was going to try to increase my route one more time tomorrow and see how far that is. My guess is that it’ll be close to 1 mile and take me about 19-20 minutes or so to complete.

There was a lot going on at home today. Woke up around 07:00. Did my normal morning routine. Blood pressure was 119/80 with a pulse of 78. Morning weight was 187.6 lbs.

After getting dressed, I went outside to help the wife decorate the house for a surprise drive-by birthday celebration for our soon to be 6-year old son. I basically just setup some of those folding camping chairs and some umbrellas. I also helped tie some balloons to our mailbox for decorations.

Before everyone showed up for the parade, I decided to get my walk in. This time I did 0.73 miles in 14:57 with an 89 average heart rate.

The parade started around 10:05 when the fire truck came roaring through with their sirens on. That definitely woke up the neighbors. Soon afterwards, the parade drove by, escorted by two police cruisers with their sirens on. All told, there were only about 5 cars in the parade. It was pretty small. Thought out the next hour though, a bunch of our son’s friends drove by and gave presents and said hi.

Some of my coworkers came by to wish my son a happy birthday and to see how I was doing. This is where I probably did a little too much. I ended up standing around for about 20-30 minutes in the sun chatting. It was about 88 degrees at the time with little breeze and no cloud cover, so the sun was hot. I was making sure to drink a bunch of water, but eventually I thought it was in my best interest to sit down and chat. I noticed that my heart rate was in the mid-90s before hitting a high around 104. I was probably out in the sun for a bout 2 hours before everyone went home and I went back in side.

I didn’t feel light headed or dizzy. It just took a lot out of me. The transition from the hot outside to the cold inside made me feel cold. I took a cool shower to cool off and wash all the sweat off of me. After about 30 minutes, I just wanted to lay down and relax. Ended up dozing off for a couple of hours. This is just a reminder that I’m only 8 days from having a major heart operation and need to do things a bit differently.

Do to this morning’s activities, I’m only planning on walking three times today.

Overall, I felt good today. Been really full these past few days since I’ve been at home. Too much good food to eat. Been making sure that I eat all three meals each day. Eating a lot more fruit in between for snacks.

I did four walks today. Did a slightly longer route today just to see how I felt. Walk 1) 0.53 miles walked in 11:20 with a 91 average heart rate. Walk 2) 0.53 miles walked in 11:12 with a 94 average heart rate. Walk 3) 0.52 miles walked in 10:47 with a 102 average heart rate. Walk 4) 0.48 in 10:55 with a 93 average heart rate.

We’re getting ready to do a COVID drive by birthday party for my soon to be 6 year old. Blew up some balloons with no real difficulty.

I received an Edible Arrangement today. That was nice. Thank you to Kenny and Helen Lee for that. It came with cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple, strawberries, and grapes.

Today was the worse I’ve felt since I’ve been home. Not a huge sample size to work with. I was full most of the day. In the evening, I started to feel some discomfort in my left side and stomach area. It’s probably all the acidic fruit that I was eating. I’m also feeling good, so I’m probably doing more than I should be doing. Going up and down the stairs more. Walking around more. No naps today either. I’d say that today is a 1-2 on the pain scale. Definitely feel like I need to take the muscle relaxer and Tylenol to help me sleep.

It’s my one week mitral valve repair heart anniversary!!! My ‘heartiversary’? My ‘valversary’? My ‘mivarepiversary’? Hmm. Needs some work.

The biggest change that I’ve been noticing is that when I wake up in the morning, I’m not as tired and have a hard time falling back asleep. We’re talking like in the morning after 7-8 hours of sleep. Pre-op, I would wake up still feeling tired and not wanting to get up. I either recovered all of my sleep in recovery or I’m not as tired due to my heart working more efficiently. Went to bead around 00:00 last night. Initially woke up around 06:30 or so. I tried to fall asleep for a while, but I guess I was able to because the next time I woke up, it was 08:20 or so.

My morning blood pressure was 117/84/84. My morning weight was 187.4. Heart rate overnight was between 70-80.

I decided to up my walking route a bit today. This morning around 09:00, I walked 0.53 miles in 11:20 with a 91 average heart rate. The biggest thing I noticed is that I was a bit warmer and little sweaty.

I never thought I would ever say this, but the hardest and most painful thing that I did today, was try to put together a LEGO set. I couldn’t even complete the set and was only able to work on them for about 15 minutes before my back and shoulders started hurting and I had to sit down on the couch and relax them. I haven’t been taking any of the Tylenol or muscle relaxers that they gave me because I haven’t really been in any pain at all. I still take the muscle relaxers before I go to bed to help me sleep.

Overall, I went on four walks today. I did the same route each time, starting my app and watch from the same point and stopping it at the same point. Not sure why the distance was never the same, but oh well. Here’s what I did. Walk 1) 0.40 miles walked in 10:01 with a 95 average BPM. Walk 2) 0.38 miles walked in 9:51 with a 96 average BPM. Walk 3) 0.37 miles walked in 9:35 with a 94 average BPM. Walk 4) 0.38 miles walked in 8:08 with a 93 average BPM. The only difference was that I forgot my 24 oz water bottle on walk 4.

No issues showering, using the restroom, brushing my teeth, feeding or dressing myself. The incisions are sore, but only when you massage them when I wash. They’re definitely raised and puffy. The worse one is the groin incision by far. Took the last bandage off, so I only have five incisions with surgical glue.

On the spirometer, I was able to max out around 3150. I’m hitting 3000 pretty consistently. Doesn’t hurt as bad when I inhale.

I ate all three meals today plus a peach and apple in the afternoon. I still like my sweets and ate some fruit snacks and chocolate pudding.

Woke up around 07:00. Will probably go to sleep around 22:30. Only took a couple of small 10 minute naps.

I got light headed a couple of times because I was standing up too fast. Gotta remember to take everything slow.

It’s amazing at how comfortable a hospital bed can be. I have a hard time sleeping flat on my back. I’m usually sleep on my right side, but all my incisions are over there. Went to bed around 22:30 or so. I didn’t sleep too bad. I don’t remember waking up all that much. When I did wake up, I was afraid to look at my watch to see that it was only like 02:00 or so. To my surprise, it was 06:56. I was actually able to sleep all the way through the night.

My heart rate overnight ranged from about 73-82. My blood pressure this morning was 123/82. My nude weight was 185.6 lbs. This is my new at home baseline for future comparisons.

Made myself some cereal for breakfast and went for a walk around 09:00. Was able to do 0.40 miles in about 10:01. My average pulse rate was 95 BPM. I’m gonna do this little path down the street and back for today and work my way up a bit tomorrow.

Made some calls to schedule my cardiac rehab orientation and make sure all my billing and disability stuff gets processed fine. Answered some calls from the doctors office and insurance with some questions. Took a little 5-10 minute nap around 10:45. Kids keep checking up on me and want to do stuff with me.

I just got back from my second walk of the day after my lunch around 12:00. I did the same path as this morning. This time I registered 0.38 mi walk in 9:51. My average pulse rate was 96 BPM.

I’m currently using the Map My Fitness app to track distance walked and my Apple Watch series 4 for my heart rate.

After getting picked up, we had to drive to the pharmacy to get a new prescription for muscle relaxers. After that, we needed to go to Target to get some baby Aspirin and some chocolate pudding, since I didn’t get to eat anymore at the hospital. By the time we got home, I had a headache and my neck and my shoulders were tight and sore. All of that muscle compensation that we do to keep our heads stable when moving in a car took a toll on me.

First thing I did after getting home was take a shower. I really wanted to wash some of the hospital off of me and properly wash my face and hair. I’m finding that I’m very sticky in certain areas where all the various adhesives were.

Ate my first meal at home with the family. I feel like my appetite is relatively back to normal. I’m really going to focus on portion control and watching what I eat. I know that my wife is going to help me with that as well.

They changed up some of my medications, so I went through them all to make sure I knew what to take when. They had me stop taking amlodipine and cut my dosage of losartan in 1/2. Wanted me to add baby aspirin daily and finish off my prednisone pack. Muscle relaxer and Tylenol as needed for pain.

Trying to setup my own bed and get everything for myself. It’s amazing how much energy little tasks take. I wouldn’t say that I’ve had to take a break and rest because I’m short of breath or tired. It’s just that my muscles are getting sore.

I noticed that my body looks more flabby and deflated. Like there’s a lot of loose skin hanging around. I lost about 10 pounds from pre-op to today. I’m wondering if I was retaining that much fluid as they were giving me a lot of diuretics at the hospital.

My first trip up the stairs wasn’t bad. Made it all the way up in one shot. Only major difference is that every step I take is deliberate.

So far so good. I’ll let you know how I feel tomorrow.

Well it looks like I went back into normal sinus rhythm this morning. Apparently my surgeon feels that my EF is closer to 40%, so I won’t need a life vest. My electrophysiologist was saying that I went into first degree yesterday and that I’ve stabilized in sinus since about 05:00. I’m thinking that the beta blocker that they tried to put me on a couple of days ago contributed to the AV block when my heart rate dropped below 50 BPM. Now that I’m normal, they’re comfortable with discharging me, especially with the progress that I’ve been making with my heart rate, blood pressure, and how I’m feeling.

They started my discharge paperwork. Took out the main IV line in my shoulder. I’ve started to clean up my room and pack things up. Kind of sad that I have to put shorts back on. Lol. Glad to be going home though. However, the level of service and care that I’ve been given here has been phenomenal. I could have easily had stayed another night if needed, especially since I actually started figuring out the TV and discovered that there were free on demand movies I could watch.

I’ll update more later on the changes to meds and follow-up appointments. Gotta start changing and packing.

Last night wasn’t too bad. Didn’t sleep that much though. Just not that tired. Tried to go to sleep around 22:30, but was woken up sometime around 00:30 when they put my blood pressure cuff and pulse ox back on. Woke up again around 03:00 and had a hard time falling back asleep.

Good news is that my heart rhythm appears to be getting better and it wants to drop back into normal sinus. Before, if you looked at the heart monitor, it would appear to skip every third beat or so. Spike. Spike. Pause... Spike. Spike. Pause... My pulse now looks more normal now. There’s a steady track of spikes with no pauses. I was told that I’m now in first degree type 1 AV block instead of second degree type 1. Hoping that means I’m making progress.

I’m feeling more itchy is places. Probably because of all of the skin irritation from the adhesives. I can change into more normal clothes if I feel like it, but the comfort and convenience of the hospital gown is just too much. They still want me to pee in the jar so that they can measure the volume. There’s no modesty around here. “Come on in. Who wants to see my butt?” Lol.

This morning I was able to consistently hit about 2000 on the spirometer. Waiting for 07:00 so I can order breakfast and then I’ll go on my first walk of the day. Debating on if I should do 2 laps x 400 ft and 1 lap x 240 ft or just push it and do 3 laps x 400 ft. Trying to ramp my way up each day and not walk until exhaustion.

Post op day 5 battle scars. They removed all of the gauze and tape so I could get a clear shot of all the incisions. There’s one additional incision in my right groin that I won’t post due to its sensitive location. Lol.

Overall, I’m feeling well. I wasn’t as tired today as I only took a couple of small naps. I don’t feel light headed or dizzy at all. I just don’t feel “right”. I’ve been getting a lot of weird tingling in my left shoulder that radiates up my neck and down my arm a bit. Nothing painful or too worrying. Just a bit annoying at times.

Pain is almost non-existent if I’m just sitting here. There’s still some right shoulder tightness, but that’s about it. Able to hit 1750 pretty consistently on the spirometer. Walked five different times today, so I knocked out 10 laps x 400 feet or so. Was fully disconnected to IV and they got the portable heart monitor working again, so I feel I have a lot more freedom. I can transfer to and from the bed with no issue. Standing and walking unassisted. Still need to walk with a nurse just in case, but they’re not using the gait belt anymore. Got fully cleared from PT and OT.

They had issues all day taking my BP. The machine was having issues reading my pulse, possibly due to the AV block. Machine tested okay with both the tech and the simulator, so it’s an issue with me and my pulse that the machine has a hard time reading. It just squeezes and doesn’t deflate. Sometimes it even times out. That’s probably the most painful part of my day right now.

Everything with my recovery is right on track. Everything except my AV block.

Pain is almost a non issue at this time. They’re still giving me Tylenol and muscle relaxers, so that could be why. There’s still some chest discomfort when I take a deep breath. I was able to max out my spirometer today at around 1900.

Blood pressure and pulse seem reasonable. My new normal resting pulse is around 61 and my BP is around 117/64. It’s hard to see the screen from where they have me sitting though.

My appetite is fine. Had breakfast and lunch today. I think it’s kind of funny how they celebrate the fact that you had a bowel movement.

Got up and walked 2 long laps today (about 800 feet each). My plan is to walk every two hours.

Met with a electrophysiologist today. Sounds like he thinks I may not need a pacemaker. That’s good. However, he was suggesting that I may want to get a life vest for when I’m at home in the event that something happens to me. If you haven’t heard of a life vest before, it’s kind of like wearing a portable automatic defibrillator.

They’re going to continue to monitor me. They say that I may be making some improvements. Day to day for now.

Was able to meet with my surgeon today. He’s said that there were no major complications with my repair. My MV was pretty shredded and he had to use a bit more chords to tie it down. Installed and annuloplasty ring around the valve. He noted that I had significant LV enlargement. Hoping that my heart enlargement will go down over time, but a lot of that depends on me. I need to watch my blood pressure and salt intake.

Still need to stay at the hospital until I get this AV block issue resolved. Seems to have stabilized at second degree type 1. Not sure what the treatment plan is just yet. The only newish symptom that I have is that I occasionally get this tingling sensation in my left shoulder that radiates down my arm a bit. Almost like a chill that goes down just the left side of my body.

Surgeon wants to me get up and walk as much as I can. I did a full lap and an extended lap around the nurse’s station before getting in bed. They say one lap around the nurse’s station is about 240-250 feet. So I’m guessing I did about 600 feet or so.

Well I still have this second degree type 1 and type 1 AV block going on. They put me on meds to increase my heart rate from 45 or so to 55. Waiting to see what the doctors say later. Hopefully they’ll pay me a visit.

Due to my heart rate and AV block, I haven’t been able to do any PT or OT work today. Just a whole lot of sitting and waiting. I’m able to sit up pretty straight now, so that helps when I need to pee. I have this lovely plastic jar that I get to go in. Not sure how you ladies do it, but more power to you.

The biggest issue that I’m having right now is that I can really feel my heartbeat. It’s kind of uncomfortable. Not painfully uncomfortable, just uncomfortable. Kind of like when I try to sleep and the fire alarm chirps telling me that I need to change the battery. Then I have to move from room to room and wait for it to chirp again. More annoying than anything. On the flip side, at least my heart is beating.

The level of care that I have been given has been outstanding. Everyone who comes in is wearing a mask and they use hand sanitizer before coming in and when leaving. The staff here go through so many gloves.

For my hospital, Baylor Heart Hospital in Plano, they have a one guest policy. Only one guest is allowed your entire stay. It needs to be the same person your entire stay and they are only allowed in the hospital once each day. No in and out privileges during the same day. Visiting hours are from 05:00-19:00 I believe.

In my room, I don’t have to wear a mask. I was on oxygen for the first few days post op. I’m no longer on oxygen now. However, when I do my walking outside of my room, I have to wear a mask. My wife has to wear a mask when in the hospital.

A huge shout out to my brother from another mother Ty and his wife Renee for volunteering to watch our boys for a few hours each day so that my wife can come visit me. It has been a tremendous help and my boys have been having a blast with them. They’ve gone swimming and fed some goats and got to ride around in their golf cart. They’ve been dying to go fishing with Uncle Ty, but it’s been too hot here lately.

It helps being able to FaceTime with family and the kids. I make sure to snuggle with the blankets that they sent to me each night and they’re happy to see me and ask how I’m feeling.

I hope that my journaling has helped some of you. It has helped me get things off my chest and document what I’m going through. Your words of encouragement and the stories you’ve all shared has been a tremendous blessing.

Woke up this morning to a sight scare. Apparently I’ve developed an abnormal hear beat. I’ve been normal sinus rhythm up until they woke me up. Will continue to monitor, but this has me a bit worried.

Nothing special to report for the afternoon. Felt pretty great. Was more alert and wake.

Was able to get up and wash my face and brush my teeth. That helped a lot.

Went for a couple of walks around the floor. So far so good.

Slept a lot last night. Was able to turn a bit and get more comfortable with the chest tube out. Chest pain is slowly going away. Still a lot of muscle soreness on the right side, but that’s understandable since I just got cut open.

Was able to get my spirometer up to about 1200 today. Went for a walk around the wing with no problems.

Got my arm and urinary catheters taken out today. That’s a relief. It was pretty uncomfortable. I now have a little bottle that I can pee in.

Doctors are saying that I’m doing well and right on track. They’re messing with my meds to help balance out my blood pressure.

The food here is pretty good. You basically order whatever you want from room service. It’s taking me a lot of will power to order actual food and not a bunch of stuff from the sweets menu. Lol.

Here’s a view of my hospital room. Got a corner room on the 5th floor. Room 518.

Had an omelette for lunch with some fruit. Didn’t have any issues eating. However my chest started hurting for a bit after eating. First real solid food in a couple of days.

Met with the PA and a doctor today to discuss my recovery. I was a little concerned that my EF pre-op in late June was 60%, but the echocardiogram post op was only 25-30%. Was told that my heart enlargement with take longer than expected to remodel itself to the new blood volume. Hopefully my numbers will improve, but only time will tell.

Bit of good news today as I was able to get my chest tube removed. Everyone has been telling me that I’ll fee much better after it’s removed. So far so good, but my chest is still sore. I am definitely able to breathe easier with less discomfort.

I was able to get to about 750 on my spirometer today. We’ll see how I progress each day.

Signing off for now. Stacey is visiting me right now. She was kind enough to give me a little shoulder massage to ease my shoulder and back pain.

It was quite a busy morning. Had my bandages replaced, got a sponge bath, had a chest x-ray, and was moved from the bed to the chair all before 05:00.

Had some apple sauce and chocolate pudding to eat. Starting to get hungry.

Around 08:00 or so, the physical therapist came by and made me get up and walk. That didn’t feel too good. Physically and breathing wise, walking the 100 ft or so wasn’t too bad. Was a little light headed, but not short of breath. It was painful to try and stand upright though.

Standing up and sitting down was painful. Took a while for me to relax my body and find a good breathing rhythm. I feel much better now though. Sitting at an incline definitely helps. Sitting normally in a chair hurts as I can’t expand my lungs properly.

Forgot to mention that the boys each sent one of their blankets with Stacey when she came to visit me. Very thoughtful of them. They also drew me a picture.

The worst part of post op was definitely getting the breathing tube taken out. There was a point in time where some fluid or mucus made it feel like I couldn’t inhale and that I wanted to cough to clear it out. I panicked and needed to close down on the breathing tube and breathe through that like a straw. Suction helped a bit, but they couldn’t go down deep enough to clear what was bothering me. You can’t talk and communication was tough. I tried to type out what I needed on my phone and use hand signals, but everything I type was gibberish.

Pain throughout day 0 was tolerable. I found that shallow breaths was the way to go. Too deep of a breath caused pain in the whole right side of my chest. They say it’ll get much better once I get this drainage tube out of me.

The catheter is great since I don’t have to get up to use the restroom, but it does burn a bit. Not looking forward to getting that taken out. Lol.

Nothing to really eat or drink all day. Had a couple of cups of water with my meds. Water never tasted so good. Lol.

Towards the evening, respiratory therapist came in and I had to do my inhale spirometer and exhale exercises.

Other than that it was a lot of sleeping. Slept a little too much during the day as I had a hard time falling asleep at night. The nurse had to come in frequently to draw blood and check my blood sugar levels. That didn’t help me sleep either.

Well I made it. I’m sore and in pain, so I’m going to keep this short. I’ll update you more tomorrow.

Went in today to do hospital admissions and some additional testing. The admissions part was pretty easy. Just sat down and answered a few questions. After the admissions part was over, it was on to testing.

I was walked over to a testing room where they would be performing some of the tests. Before going into the room they wanted a urine sample. After a quick stop in the restroom, I went into the testing room. I first had my blood pressure and oxygen levels taken. Today, I was 126/86. After that she needed to take some blood. Not sure what they’re testing for, but she must have taken around 8 vials. Once my arm was all wrapped up, they hooked up all the nodes to get an EKG reading.

The second stop on my pre-admission testing was the dreaded COVID test. This was my first one. I’ve heard all the stories about the “brain tickler” and let me tell you, it’s no lie. Luckily she only had to do one nostril. My mom asked me what it was like afterwards. I told her it was like an Open House. She went in there, looked around a little bit, even had time to make a sandwich, before she took the swab out. I’d say she was up my nostril for a good 15 seconds or so. It burned a little bit and made my eyes water. The discomfort didn’t last long though. Hopefully my test comes back negative. No reason not to, but I didn’t think anything was wrong with my heart 5 months ago, so anything can happen.

My last and final test of the day was a chest x-ray and that was easy. Two total views, one facing and one side profile. Surgery day is almost here. By my count I’ll be in the OR in about 32 hours or so.

Tonight is not a good night. It’s been quite a while since I’ve felt this way. Having a hard time sleeping because of rapid resting heart rate and a pounding in my chest. Here’s how we got here.

This weekend was going pretty well. On Saturday, I mowed the lawn in the backyard, since I won’t be able to do it for quite a while after my surgery on Friday. I cleaned up the garage a bit. Donated a few boxes of clothes and other random stuff. Did our usual weekend runs to Target and Costco. It’s been a while since we’ve had some steak, so I bought some rib eye steaks from Costco. Also got some of their seasoned carne asada and some hamburger patties with bacon and cheddar cheese already mixed in. Cooked up two of the three rib eyes for dinner. They weren’t too bad. A bit overcooked on the medium side instead of medium rare. One of these days, I’ll eventually figure out how to cook steaks.

On Sunday, I woke up a bit sore in my left bicep and my shoulders from using the weed eater. Other than that, I felt okay. Gave myself a pre-surgery hair cut. For lunch, I cooked up the bacon and cheddar hamburger patties for the family. Taste wise, they weren’t too bad. There was just a lot of oil that didn’t sit too well with my stomach. In the afternoon, we ran some errands and got some dessert. Went home and watched Sing with the boys. I was a bit tired during the movie and I think I fell asleep for a bit. For dinner, the wife and kids had some raw fish and sushi that we picked up during the day. I decided to have the last rib eye steak because I didn’t want to freeze it. After dinner, I went and mowed the front yard while the boys rode their bikes outside. Hoping that we don’t get another HOA nasty gram about our front yard.

This is when it started to get bad. After taking a shower and getting the boys ready for bed, my stomach was gurgling a lot. I didn’t think much of it because I usually get this way when I eat a lot of red meat. My body just isn’t used to it as I don’t eat it too often. Around 8:45 or so, my heart started pounding pretty hard, where you can really feel it beating in your chest. It prompted me to record my first event with my heart holter monitor. After wearing it for 13-days, now is when I started recording events.

After watching some TV with the wife, we decided to go to bed around 11:30 or so. Around 12:23, I awoke all of a sudden. My heart rate shot up to around 110 bpm from 64 bpm when I was asleep. I was still feeling uneasy in my chest. Wondering if it had to do with my upset stomach, I went downstairs to take a famotidine tablet to help with any stomach issues I was having.

Tried to fall back asleep around 12:45. At this time, my mind is fully racing and worried about my heart rate and whether or not I’m experiencing heart palpitations. I’m starting to wonder if I’m having shortness of breath or if I’m in aFib. My mind is starting to take over this situation and make me feel even more anxious and stressed. I’m only able to get my resting heart rate down to a bout 87 bpm. When I get up to walk to the other room, but heart rate jumps up to 105 bpm.

I guess I managed to fall asleep for a few minutes, but then I woke up again to a heart rate of 115 bpm, up from about 71 bpm a few minutes earlier. No I’m starting to worry even more. Over the past month or so, the only time my heart rate went about 90 was when I was walking or riding my bike. Even then, I would only max out around 110-120 bpm.

I’m trying to relax and get my mind off of my heart. I took a unison to help me get to and stay asleep for the rest of the night. I also decided to add this journal entry to help clear my mind as well. It’s now 2:00 and my heart rate is currently around 80 bpm. My Apple Watch is both a blessing and a curse.

I had my annual checkup with my PCP on Monday, August 17, 2020. Did some blood work to check my cholesterol, blood sugar, and all that fun stuff. For the first time in years, all my numbers are in, or close to, the normal range. I’ve been pretty high in most of the tests (cholesterol, LDL, triglycerides, AST, ALT) for the past few years. All this walking and eating healthy looks like it’s starting to pay off. Not seeing a huge change on the scale, but my blood work looks good. Blood pressure was also normal at 122/80.

Had my pre-op CT scan of my abdomen and pelvis on Tuesday, August 18, 2020. Hopefully there nothing to note and I can proceed with the surgery as planned.

Up next is hospital admission and COVID test on Wednesday, August 26, 2020, and the surgery on Friday, August 28, 2020.

Rocking my extended holter monitor for the next 14 days. Don’t know why I was expecting something much larger with some wires. Totally not complaining about having to wear this for a couple of weeks. I shaved my legs in the past when I used to ride

A good friend of mine from college just sent me this awesome card. Thanks, Helena. In case you’re wondering, no, she did not misspell my name. My college hockey friend gave me that nickname because I’m all Offense and no Defense. 🤪

Man, this whole COVID-19 pandemic is really throwing a wrench into everything. My parents and my in-laws are both willing and want to come out and help my wife take care of our kids and myself during recovery. It's going to be especially hard on my wife considering that we opted to have them start the school year learning remotely from home. Having to take care of both boys and myself is going to a lot.

Since we live in Texas and our families live in California and Nevada, the logistics of getting them out here is proving to be difficult. My parents and in-laws are both considered high risk and really shouldn't be flying in today's COVID-19 world. The next best option is to drive, but you're looking at 17-21 hours in the car with a hotel stay or two somewhere in the middle.

At the end of the day, their health and safety is just as important as my recovery. I'm fortunate to have a tremendous of amount of support from my work family that are willing to help out. A few of them have even offered to mow our lawn while I'm recovering and unable to do so. You know you have great friends if they're willing to help mow your lawn or help you move. Lol.

Since we're on our own timing, I've decided to move the date of my surgery up. I know what needs to be done. The sooner I have the surgery, the sooner I'll be able to start recovering and moving on with the next chapter of my life. I was originally scheduled to have my surgery on 9/18/20, but am now scheduled to have it on 8/28/20.

Once I received the diagnosis that I had a severe heart condition that may require surgery to fix, my emotional state took a bad turn. You can't overlook the mental health aspect of any kind of medical diagnosis. At first, I was in shock. I was scared, worried, anxious, depressed. I did a bunch of research on my condition and thought of the worse possible outcomes. I started questioning what the point of working was. I started questioning my contribution to my friends and family. I had a hard time sleeping. I was questioning everything going on with me. I'd feel a muscle twitch and wonder if it was my heart. I'd feel hungry and wonder if it was my heart. Every little thing I did, I wondered if I was doing more damage. Is it okay to mow the lawn? Is it okay to ride my bike with my kids? Can I go for a walk?

Early on, I lost my appetite. I had a hard time focusing at work because my mind kept going back to what was wrong with me. I could feel the stress and anxiety sitting in the middle of my chest, reminding me of what was wrong. This would cause me to worry, stress, and be even more anxious. The more research I did, the worse it got. Mostly because I didn't really understand all of the medical terminology. I just heard the word "severe" and started to panic and freak out.

What really helped was that I started talking to people about my condition. I joined a couple of Facebook groups for my condition. Knowing and talking to others who could relate to what I have started to bring a glimmer of light and hope. Reading their stories of success after surgery was promising. It turns out that my manager's brother had the same condition and went through a similar MV repair surgery that I'll be going through. Talking with my friends and my co-workers helped a lot. It started to put my mind at ease. At the end of the day, I accepted that I have what I have and I can't do much about it. I started to focus on the things that I could control.

I started walking everyday. I started to change my diet and focus on what I ate. I returned a bunch of snacks and soda to Costco so I wouldn't feel like I had to consume it so I didn't waste it. I focused on what I could control to help my heart. The morning of my echocardiogram, I weighed 202.2 lbs. A month later, I am down to 192.6 lbs. My appetite started getting better, but I tried not to eat a lot or eat bad things. My wife started changing what she made for dinner to eat more healthy.

It's still hard to undo so many years of bad habits, but I'm feeling lucky and blessed that my heart condition was identified as early as it was and is still in a repairable condition. Trying to stay positive and continue the drive.

I met my surgeon on July 29th, 2020. His name is Dr. Robert Lee Smith II. He told me that my chordae have ruptured causing my mitral leaflet to flail. He is recommending that I have surgery within 3 months.

He will be performing robot-assisted, non-invasive surgery. Surgery is supposed to take between 3-5 hours. Recovery is planned to be 3-5 days in the hospital with another month or so of doing not much of anything. I'll need to get up and walk at a talking pace multiple times a day for the first month, after which I will begin cardiac rehab. I'm not supposed to lift anything over 10 lbs. The biggest challenge will be keeping the boys from climbing all over me. Gotta remind myself to cut the grass before my surgery. Hopefully it starts to hibernate around then.

The only major long term lifestyle change is that I need to keep my blood pressure down and eat no more than 1500 mg of sodium daily. Doesn't sound like I'll need to take any additional meds.

There's a <1% chance of dying and a 1% chance of kidney/liver/organ failure or stroke with this surgery. However, my chances of experiencing atrial fibrillation goes up by 5% every few months without any surgical correction. Long term prognosis after surgery is close to normal. There is a 0.5% chance of a follow-up surgery within a year and a 15% chance within 20-years.

Went to see my Primary Care Provider on March 17, 2020, after I noticed a crackling sound when I exhaled. With the COVID-19 pandemic starting to ramp up in the US, I was a little concerned, so I set up an appointment to meet with my PCP. During my check-up, he said that I didn't have COVID-19 and that the crackling was due to wheezing, which I had never experienced before. Unfortunately, he also checked my lungs and heart and noted that I had a heart murmur. He put in a referral for a cardiologist and I went on with my life.

I had a televisit with my cardiologist on March 27, 2020. I explained to him that I felt fine. I've been playing hockey, lifting weights, and exercising with no symptoms that would cause me to think something was wrong. My cardiologist ordered an echocardiogram.

Due to COVID-19, I delayed the echocardiogram until June 29, 2020. Had I known what the diagnosis would be, I would have scheduled it sooner. Based on the echocardiogram, I was diagnosed with severe mitral regurgitation (MVR) with moderate prolapse (MVP) of the posterior mitral valve leaflet. It was also noted that my left atrium (LA) is markedly dilated (>42ml/m2). The only positive was that my ejection fraction (EF) of 60%. Normal EF is between 50-75%.

During my follow-up with the cardiologist to discuss my results, he referred me to a cardiac thoracic surgeon and went over my echo results. I was able to get a lot of my lifestyle questions that I had answered. The rest of the questions will have to wait for the appointment with the surgeon.