Richard's Journal

Robert Miller  What "normal" means depends on the person. But the fact that you felt pretty good after 4 months sounds about right.

The dizzy spells could depend on medicine, temperature, etc. Mention it to your cardiologist. You should actually feel better than before. But you might also be more aware of symptoms than before.  

For me, I pretty much didn't feel the incision except for being pretty itchy. For the sternum, listen for cracking sounds. I still feel some discomfort every so often but I think it is caused by the wires holding the sternum together. 

Adam Pick  Hi Richard, Sorry to hear about your recent struggles. Were you diagnosed with atrial fibrillation after your mitral valve surgery? Fyi, a symptom of afib is fatigue. Here's some info about afib after surgery. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v0qXScTcTOk

Marie Myers  Hopefully you have contacted your cardiologist and spoken with you doctor about your decrease in energy. 

Kimberly Eisenhut  This does not address if you start having it over a month after surgery. I still am really struggling with pericaditis and these constant irregular rhythms ,even though I'm on colchicine and Prednisone.  Sometimes for hours, especially after eating even very small meals. More bloodwork today and heart monitor next week. Makes it hard to breathe and just function at all. Every day at some point I'm ready to go to ER, it's that bad. Praying for some relief and this settles down and my sinus node can get it together 🥴

Richard Hines  I knew about my aFib about 20 months ago. I think it started after a 5 hour phone battle with AT&T to switch my mother’s phone to my plan. I noticed a “flip-flopping” sensation in my chest that night that I never felt before. My wife of 55 years said she’d never seen me so upset like I was with AT&T. 

Richard Munson  If i read this correctly it sounds like you knew about a fib before your surgery. Curious why they did not address it while you were opened up. Maze procedure for example.

Richard Hines  That I don’t know. But, before surgery, my watch wouldn’t stop warning me about an irregular heartbeat. It beeped so much that I shut the warning off. I just started it back up and it hasn’t warned yet about an irregular heartbeat. Have an appointment 12/5 and will find out what’s going on. I hope. 

J Alexander Lassally  Hey - You should have a proper rule in or rule out for afib... Assuming this was a Mitral Clip and not full surgery?  Is the repair good that was done? Did the leak get solved? All problems which should be addressed. I assume they are doing follow up echo exams? If the valve is not fixed properly that is a totally different deal than afib... 

Richard Munson  Good luck on 12-5-23 appointment. Ask some serious questions. Maybe like when do i get an echo, and why no a fib procedure during surgery. Maybe wear  a fib monitor like holter or longer version implant like i wear. Doctors tend to respect people better when they are informed and ask intelligent  questions by holding their feet to the fire. Your number one health care advocate is you. If you have a doctor that does not want you to be in charge : goodby. 

Kimberly Eisenhut  Richard, hvs step dad; what is the implanted version you have, I cannot remember . If need be I may mention it to the electrophysiology team when I get an apt. 
Richard Hines, when mine is on junctional rhythm it is do uncomfortable, pounding, short of breath, it's hard to handle. How goes your irregular rhythms make you feel? It's very hard to function at all when it's going on for hours at a time . Do you have a kardia mobile device, 6 lead? It may help , as I can send the readings straight to my Drs in MyChart. Not as good as 12 lead, but helps them be able to see what I'm talking about and not make me feel like I'm going crazy. Now after sending several past few days they're finally saying, yes, I see you're in almost constant junctional rhythm but said they have to make sure pericarditis is well controlled before going anything else . Boy is this stuff rough sometimes. 

Richard Munson  Its called a linc by medtronic and it has a 3 year battery life and mine has gone over that. It is a tiny chip implanted under the skin, by your heart, virtually impossible to see ( a tiny bump) and it detects abnormal heart beats and sends them to a night table small transmitter box which in turn sends to doctor. While you sleep. You also get a key fob type device that you can press if you detect something specific you want to be recorded. Never used it. My cardiologist inserted chip surgically in his office and it is very much like a dog locator chip. The only downside is i raise my leg to pee. Just kidding. The medtronic sales guy observed the implantation as well. Painless.  My insurance pays almost all of the doctor charges to read the data. Once it finally dies out or i die, i may just leave it in and return the table unit. I think its great as holters are short lived, in the way like for a shower, bulky, and glue is irritating to me. This is invisible with no discomfort at all. I could take a pix of unit box if interested. I would not plug it, if it was not great.

Richard Munson  Also, i had an issue last year with the bedside unit and called medtronic. They sent me a new unit, no questions asked and a return box postage paid for the broken unit. Easy beans.

Richard Munson  Sorry, one more thought. This unit was great for all the reasons above but more so because my a fib was a symptomatic. Also, early on i pushed the key fob button for kicks and they called me also immediately to see if i was ok. 

Kimberly Eisenhut  Ok, I'll ask about it, thank you. I have a Medtronic contour ring in my tricuspid, so already a customer I guess. I'm down today because my CRP(inflammation markers) number for bloodwork and it's still 12.9, and it should be below 5 at highest with what I'm taking. I couldn't even go on the biologic injections unless it's below 5. Seems Drs are not understanding why either . He said he's never had this happen. Well, that is quite anxiety inducing .

Richard Hines  This recovery and healing process is interesting. A few days ago I was whining about backsliding and feeling weak, dizzy and more pain. These last couple of days have been a snap. Still some pain but actually not enough pain to even warrant Extra Strength Tylenol. A funny thing happens once in a while when I go into a grocery store. I get dizzy, wobbly and need to sit down for a while. Don’t understand it one bit. Before surgery, I did most of our grocery shopping and enjoyed it. 

Deena Z  Richard, that incident in the grocery store sounds like a BP drop, which is not at all unusual  given how recent your surgery was.  If it happens often during the next month,  revisit afib  or vagal nerve.