Shanna's Posts

1 Month After Surgery - Today was the one month mark from my January 13th surgery to replace my Aortic Valve. Everything is going well. On January 30th I hiked 2 miles, including some inclines. On February 8th, we hiked 6 miles in Ojai, this time with more incline. I feel great while walking and doing chores around the house. Still taking Tylenol every day and stronger stuff to sleep. Trying to reduce amount of pain meds each day. Today I started an antibiotic as two of my incisions have small surface infections. Hope the meds help and it doesn't spread inside further. I think the warm weather and my activity may have caused abrasion on the remaining healing scar and inflamed the area. My INR is doing well and I haven't had any bleeding issues. I still have some anxiety about returning to work in March and a fear of going out of the house alone. I will try to get more walking in when I am alone next week. The fresh air and exercise really seems to help. My heart rate is still running high, at about 100-110 beats per minute. I hope this reduces soon, as I sometimes feel like I am having a panic attack but I know it is just my heart rushing. Still fighting pain in neck and shoulders and hope that as I can sleep in a more regular position, some of this pain and tension reduces. Overall doing better than I had expected and hope everyone else is also doing well. Shanna