Mark's Journal

Hey folks, so I was able to go home on Saturday, April 19. I was banging it up in the hospital and so they discharged me at 4 days, just one day longer than the first. So far at home it's been pretty good. Spent most of Sunday in the recliner, but Monday morning was up and around and Tuesday was up and about until mid-afternoon. Wednesday took a little outing and was at least around the house until evening and same on Thursday. Honestly, I've never been much to be sitting around, so this is tough for me so incrementing activities and I have soo many low intensity projects. What I am struggling with is pretty intense back pain behind my heart. I think a side effect of the pericardium sac being missing and an issue I had before surgery but more intense for the last few days probably because of overall reduced pain meds and increased activity. Otherwise I can feel my heartbeat and heart moving around, as I could before surgery, another issue of the pericardium sac being missing. I'm hoping all this settles down as time progresses.

Here’s the short version. Two of the leafs were not moving/opening. The third leaf got a hole in it, likely from the additional pressure, and causing regurgitation in addition to the stenosis. That could have spiraled so having the valve replaced now rather than later likely kept me from an even more dangerous situation.
In addition to this the pericardium sac around my heart is simply missing and there was a large amount of scar tissue from the original valve replacement creating further complications. All this led to nearly 6 hours in surgery.
The good news is that none of this will impact use of the new valve, in general. It might lead to more heart movement that I can feel.

OK, still all set for tomorrow.  Had a little scare with yet another cold a few weeks back, but that cleared up fairly quickly and I've tried the hermit thing for a few weeks now, which the dogs have loved.

OK, I've successfully completed the last big hump before surgery with the Angiogram complete last Friday.  No other blockages or repair work needed, just the valve replacement.  So, the work I've done to get my cholesterol fully in check via 35+ lbs off and finally finding a low dose statin that isn't causing side effects has been effective.  Now I coast to 4/15, hopefully!  Still working on another 15 lbs off, but I am finding that it's getting more difficult to lose weight now, even with a very healthy diet . . . 

Part Two: Right after I had the echocardiogram done my Dr started me on a statin (Rosuvastatin), and a high dose to start. I skimmed the side effects, but drugs rarely bother me so I didn't give it much thought. After a few weeks I noticed that I was having shortness of breath and chest pain, sometimes moderate to severe. After a few weeks of that I decided to go the ER as I was fairly concerned and also started getting AFIB alerts from my watch. They cleared me, but I was still concerned. I ultimately stopped the statin and things went back to almost normal. Word to the wise, if you start a statin don't be surprised if it does some weird stuff to you. I am now on a much lower dose of Pravastatin and no notable issues with that. Subsequently to that the chest pain and shortness of breath have returned. So, I am speculating that if I were to go back on the Rosuvastatin after valve replacement, I'll handle it fine with a healthy functioning heart.


Tomorrow is my pre-surgery Cardiac Cath.

Part One: Just about 6 weeks out. So, how did this episode of valve failure start for me? In 2024, I had noticed earlier in the year that my heart was starting to noticeably 'pound' especially after meals, but it would go late at night and would keep me from being able to fall asleep. In September I had a calcium score done on my heart which wasn't good and a few weeks after my 2 year echocardiogram was completed. The echocardiogram showed nearly severe aortic stenosis. After that I started a diet figuring valve replacement was going to be eminent. I'm down 35 lbs and trying to get to 50 lbs before surgery. More to follow on the subsequent drama in a future post . . . my cholesterol is in a really good spot now as well. I like to at least try to improve my overall odds of the open heart surgery not having complications.

Well, folks, for those that still have the same e-mail address as 2012, looks like my prosthetic valve is suffering from nearly severe aortic stenosis.  I'll be ramping back up for a valve replacement in 2025 . . . will keep y'all posted.

So I breezed by the 5 month mark and am feeling pretty good. My longest run up to this point is 6 miles on Thanksgiving weekend. I\'ve been pretty busy with my daughter participating in \'Journey to Bethlehem\', so I\'ve slowed a bit this last week. I have, however, decided to run in the LA half marathon on January 13, 2013 (http://www.131losangeles.com/). I\'ll be running for World Vision with funds raised going to help provide clean water for communities in Africa. Please checkout my page at http://support.worldvision.org/site/TR/TeamWorldVision/TeamWorldVision?px=1280928&pg=personal&fr_id=1820. I\'ve never participated in a marathon before so please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I train over the Christmas break and through New Years.

OK, it\'s been awhile. There hasn\'t really been too much to report. On Oct 1 I stopped taking the blood thinner (Warfarin), so I\'m free of any prescription medication. Just taking low dose aspirin, which is indefinite. Today I saw my PCP for a 3 month post-surgery check-up (a little late). He doesn\'t see the need for any restrictions and to \'listen to my body\' when exercising. I asked some specific questions about symptoms that I wasn\'t too sure about and mainly I just need to let my heart and body continue to adjusting to the new, healthy heart valve. Additionally, one of the \'symptoms\' is likely due to the weight loss and fact that I\'m exercising more consistently now. On a side note, I\'ve been torturing myself running and have worked my way up to just short of 3 miles in one continuous run. I have a few more weeks to decide if I want to attempt to begin training for the LA half marathon so I can run to raise money for a good cause. More to come . . .

This last week I had an echo completed Monday morning and then saw my Cardiologist on Tuesday morning. Based on the results of the echo and a general evaluation of my health (consistently good blood pressure, wound is healed, no other specific ongoing issues) he doesn\'t want to see me again for a year. I have to keep taking the blood thinners until October 1st and not do anything strenuous to my chest (push-ups, bench press, etc) for another month. I am good to exercise otherwise as I would like, so I think it\'s time to start training for a marathon. :) I\'ll probably post something here and there, but for the most part I\'m out of the woods and likely won\'t post very frequently going forward. Thank you all for your support and I hope this blog has been helpful for everyone to keep up on what\'s been going on. In ~15 years when I have to do this again, hopefully they can replace my valve without cutting me open, but I have ~15 years to worry about that.

Well, I returned to work last week on Aug 2, just a bit over 5 weeks after surgery. I think the timing was good so I didn\'t get too used to having everyday be a \'home maintenance and chores\' day. I\'m actually feeling great. A little tired with the longer hours working and taking Noah to football practice every night, but he\'s enjoying football and his coach made him the defense example last night with his extensive defensive background, so he felt pretty good about that. I\'ve been \'power\' walking and squeezing in some jogging over the last week and that\'s worked out pretty well so far. Next week I get a baseline echocardiogram done and then I should get one annually after that to monitor the valve and eventually define the timing for another replacement (~15 years from now).

It\'s hard to believe it\'s been 4 weeks, but that\'s where I\'m at (it seems longer). I\'m certainly feeling much better than I expected at this point, but not completely out of the woods yet. Noah starts football practice late next week so I\'ve been trying to throw the ball around with him, but given all the warnings (and not wanting to re-break my sternum) I find myself stepping out of the way of the ball so it doesn\'t land squarely on my chest. Maybe I\'m just being overly pre-cautious, but just a few more weeks and I can let up a bit. Deep breaths are still causing chest discomfort and I\'m hoping that\'s everything still healing and not because of the wires holding my chest together. The wires could optionally be removed later if I determine that they\'re bothering me. And lastly, there\'s still some lightheadedness when standing, but it\'s worse when I bend or squat for longer than 15 seconds or so and then stand up.

I guess I missed the 3 week mark yesterday, but it wasn\'t all that interesting. Today we went to see the cardiologist for the first time since before the surgery. He was very pleased with my progress and the sound my heart is now making. It didn\'t take much to convince him to take me off the blood pressure medicine, so that\'s no more (yea!!!). Now I\'m just down to the blood thinners and that\'ll take a bit more time to be rid of. I also still have a few strings that haven\'t disolved completely yet where the tube holes were, but with some time these will be gone. Lastly will be the baseline echo in mid-August. This will be the second look at my new valve and we\'ll use this echo as a baseline to monitor my valve going forward to make sure it\'s healthy and working properly and monitor for the future.

So, you might wonder what was the worst part of the entire surgery experience (assuming that it\'s all downhill from here)? Well, I\'ve thought long and hard about this and have a few candidates. First, one might think it was knowing that your heart has been stopped and being on a heart and lung machine and then a ventilator, but I don\'t remember either of these at all and just had a sore throat as a token to remember this, so I don\'t think I can use these. Second - Apparently I was quite out of it in the ICU and making unreasonable demands, like wanting to go to Disneyland, asking for a soda and demanding that I go home now. Again, I cannot remember this part of the ICU so I think this has to get thrown out as well. Third, there\'s the breathing. Wow, who\'d of thought that a three hours in surgery would lead to needing to learn to breath all over again. And a walk that\'s just 100 feet (with a walker) would be completely exhausting and lead to a naptime. As bad and uncomfortable as that was I don\'t think that get\'s the prize either. I could mention the hospital food (at least I was told it was food, but I don\'t remember it tasting like anything I would eat on purpose - er maybe it was the drugs changing the taste of the food?). But, hospital food is just too obvious. Then you come to it. Something so horrific that I found myself sitting in the sun on Monday still dealing with it. Maybe gasoline or kerosene would take care of it more quickly. Are you dying to know what it is? OK, tape residue. Yeah, tape residue. This horrific stuff must be made specifically to leave as much of itself behind as possible. And then finding it in places you don\'t remember having something taped to and wondering what was taped there that you didn\'t know about. I think the last of it has now been found and dealt with, but there\'s always tomorrow to find a little more. And yes, more than 3 weeks after surgery, I\'m still finding it. Something must be done so future patients don\'t have to deal with this nasty stuff.

So, two weeks ago I left the hospital and 17 days ago was surgery. I took a very short trip to Costco with some family and I drove for the first time today. All was good, but shifting my manual was a bit uncomfortable. As long as I stick with places a mile or two from the house I should be good for now.

OK, so I got the Dr. to half my dose last week, but after today he\'s insisting I keep taking the blood pressure medicine (although my blood pressure is remaining low without it) for now. More to take up with the Cardiologist next week. Upon a friends suggestion and OK from the Dr I\'m starting to take it at night starting tonight.

Well, it\'s been almost a week and I\'ve progressed quite a bit. I\'ve ditched the pain medication (last one I had was on Monday). There\'s a bit of chest and shoulder discomfort, especially when moving around or trying to use my arms for things. I found I could not scoop ice cream very easily if it was not really soft. I\'m now making it around the block on walks and can move at a pretty good pace walking. The dizziness/lightheadedness seems to be better (not gone) and I\'m breathing pretty normal now. I\'m also more comfortable going out to multiple places (i.e. - Dr today, pick up Lauren and go to grocery store all in one trip). We\'ve even ventured to the beach, where I took a nap.

Wendy and I went to see my PCP today. Everything is generally good with my health (good blood pressure, etc). I\'m having a new issue where I get really dizzy while standing, but it\'s to early to really attribute this to anything. The Dr cut my blood pressure medicine in half as this might have an impact. Also, since the surgery, my heart-rate has averaged 75 - 90 at rest and before surgery my heart-rate averaged 60 - 70 at rest. Not sure if the heart-rate increase is permanent or not. After the Dr we went to Chipotle (Mmmmmm) for the first time in 3 weeks for lunch. Did I say Mmmmmmm. Why can\'t they serve this at the hospital?

Kind of surreal I\'ve been home 4 of the last 7 days. I\'ve been up and around the house a lot more over the last day or so. Someone had to supervise my dad and son doing the yard work. When the pain meds wear off, there are interesting new pains I\'ve never noticed before. Hopefully those will fade away as well soon. I\'ve been primarily working on increasing my respiratory so I can get completely back to normal while breathing and then increasing my ability to endure while walking. Happy 4th everyone!

Wendy thought it was weird that I wanted pictures in the hospital, but now I can look back and remember what really looked like cause I don\'t remember some of this stuff. I do remember being in the Cardiac ICU and I kind of remember all the stuff I was hooked up to. Anyway, added a picture of it for your pleasure. you can see the dozen or so various IV drips (holy cow, no wander why I can\'t walk straight), the things on my legs to make my calves more muscular, and on the more graphic side you can see the IV going into my jugular still in place.

If you\'re interested and OK with a mildly graphic photo look in the photos section. The website turned it sideways and it\'s when the bandages were just removed, so it\'s already looking much, much better.

I know that all the combined prayers from friends and family in California, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri any many states and countries abroad has shown me Gods favor for this part of my journey, for which we would not have achieved what I feel is just short of a miraculously fast recovery out of the hospital.  They were even ready to move me out of the ICU Tuesday evening but there weren\'t any beds available until Wednesday. Trust is also a key component anytime you relinquish partial orcomplete control of our lives to someone or something else. The Drs, Nurses, staff friends and family supporting me had my complete trust and cooperation, which kept me fairly calm and relaxed while in the hospital. Proverbs 3:5-6 (NIV) Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; [6] in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. Thank you all again! Please take the time to send some of that support to our many friends/family in Colorado Springs that have been directly or indirectly impacted by the multiple fires accros the state, but one of the more horrific is the Waldo Canyon fire which has now taken hundreds of home and lives in the Colorado Springs area. It is also still well under 50% contained.

Yesterday afternoon Wendy and dad drove me home from the hospital. The drive home was the most \'exciting\' part (down the 101 and the 110 at 3 PM on Friday). It is good to be home and the improvement in food quality has actually made me hungry again.

Last evening the bandages were remove from my incision wound and we got a first look. The nurses were impressed with how nice it looked and said my surgeon had one of the best/clean cuts. I\'ll have to post a picture of it later.

Apparently I was pretty far under for the surgery. Reports are that I wanted to go to Disneyland, have a coke and go home and then I kept asking for the kids. I\'m sure that seeing that would have scared the kids to death. At least I didn\'t get violent but I guess thats why I was fastened to the bed. Fortunately, I don\'t remember any of this so I\'m denying it all.