Michael's Posts

Michael, I have had 2 open heart surgeries. I take antibiotics when I get my teeth cleaned, when I had cataract surgery, when I had a colonoscopy, and of course, when I had a valve replacement. Anytime I had a procedure that may or may not cause bleeding, I request antibiotics. I have had cuts on my hands that bled, scratches on my legs that caused bleeding, and I do NOT take antibiotics, however I do use a little triple antibiotic Neosporin on cuts etc. I take no medication whatsoever on a daily basis except for baby aspirin. Best to ask your primary care physician because we are all different. I personally have never had any type of life threatening infections either....thank goodness! Hope this is helpful. :o)

Michael most dentists will prescribe you antibiotics if you have a heart condition from a cleaning to a procedure. Ask your dentist prior to your appointment since they usually want you to take them hours before. Also, for any medical procedure or medical visit let them know even though in an emergency they will see your nice zipper and know,but why have any delay in them treating you quickly and adequately.

Thanks for sharing. Your progress encourages me. While I'm waiting for surgery the doctor asked me to "please stop exercising whenever you notice any symptoms." This translates into my weight staying stable, but my body fat percentage increasing 2-3% in the last two weeks. I feel like I'm in a reverse bell curve, so thanks again for sharing about your progress post-op. I suspect that you feeling good about your progress. Way to go!

I am almost 6 weeks out from a partial sternotomy and the nurse at cardiac rehab said I could start now, but she said to monitor my heart rate and slowly build up. Of course, I am not much of a runner so that probably won't happen, but that is what she told me. :)

As soon as I was allowed to walk, I started building my pace up and up further, longer then longer, up hills and down hills-although I did over do it and collapsed several times along the way therefore I gave it a break for awhile and focused on recovering slowly but steadily in the next coming months instead of spending all my mind power on getting back to running. It took 12 months to run in cross country marathons which I came first. I still felt out of condition and not fully recovered. My repair was successful however I had mild leakage of my Mitral Valve plus my Surgeon recently has found more holes so maybe that contributed.

Started running 4 weeks out from AVR and aneurysm repair. Full sternotomy. Ran my first 5 K 8 months out and finished top ten overall at age 44. Ran first half marathon 1.5 years out. In four years since surgery, have competed in a half dozen half marathons, an MS 100 bike race, almost a dozen Olympic triathlons, and numerous 5 &10 Ks. Races keep me motivated. I hadn't run a competitive race in 20 years before my surgery. I now run, bike, or swim almost every day. Glad to be more than alive, I'm living. Good luck.