TIMOTHY's Journal

Robert Miller  I am probably not the best person to answer this because I had issues with my mitral valve which was repaired and not replaced. I am a bit surprised that a replacement lead to leakage. In any case, did they compare the heart chamber size to before and after the surgery? Has it increased? If so, that's a concern. Also check the ejection rate. Make sure you have frequent checks, i.e. initially every 3 months and if it looks stable every 6 months. 

Grace Mason   I know when taking metoprolol at 50mg I definitely felt low energy. My doctor reduced to 25mg and it helped 

Rita Savelis  Lowering (or stopping) metoprolol might help. I recommend telling your doctor how you feel and asking him/her at every appointment WHY you are on the meds you are on and when/if you can stop them - with clear explanations. Doctors can have a tendency, alas, to put you on a med and then never take you off unless you ask about them regularly. Take care.

Kath Duggan  I was on metoprolol 25 mg and feeling terrible at times, my blood pressure would drop and had no energy at all. Luckily, my cardiologist is very open minded and told me to  cut back to 12.5 mg and see if it helps. I did and I feel much better. His attitude is to try and find what works for the patient. I also learned you need to push for answers if things do not feel right. ❤️

Ana Brusso  I am on 25mg Metropolol and take Rosuvastatin 20mg. I don’t feel weak or tired or slow. I would follow Rita’s advice and talk to your doctor. Hope you find the right answers. God bless you

Rita Savelis  Oh, wow, Timothy 100 mg is a lot! This certainly could affect your energy as metropolol slows everything down. Please bring this up with your doctor. Take care.

Ana Brusso  Hello Timothy, thank you for your post. I’m glad you are doing well and sorry your son has a bicuspid aortic valve. As you said it’s better to know so he can keep an eye on it. Hoping the other two don’t have any issues. God bless you and your family 

Rose Madura  Hi Timothy. Glad you are doing so well.  It was a great idea for you to ask your children get tested. Better to know and watch than be surprised and scared. I mentioned to my five brothers that they should consider getting checked but I don't believe any of them have.  The choice is theirs.  

Robert Stebbins  Thank you!  Success stories are great for this newbie to hear. I second your recommendation to have close family tested with an Echo. I wasn’t aware that there can be a hereditary element to my valve defect until my cardiologist told me. Fortunately, neither of my sons have it (both had Echos). I’ve encouraged my sister to get an Echo but she’s sure “she’s fine” as her recent EKG was normal. I’m not sure an EKG catches this but you can only lead the horse to water. 

Mary Milewski  Hi Timothy-my cardiologist suggested that I start a statin immediately after I was diagnosed with bicuspid AV almost 20 yrs ago--my cholesterol was normal at the time--I was started on 10 mg but have been taking only 5 mg and my total cholesterol level has not dropped significantly but HDL /LDL components are great.    

Rose Madura  I guess all doctors are different.  My cardiologist does not want me on a statin unless I need to be on it.  I tend to have very high good cholesterol which puts me over 200. I take some supplements and try to watch what I eat but he tends to go by the ratio between the two.  I don't want to be on a prescription unless necessary. 

Mary Jewett  I am on a statin and have been for more than 10 years.  Two years ago I had an aortic valve replacement and now have a mechanical valve.  Currently I am a member of weight watchers and am working on losing some weight in the hopes of eventually getting off my cholesterol medication.  I lost enough that I got off my high blood pressure medication more than two years ago and my doctor has said it is possible that I will be able to go off the statin if I get down to the weight we have set as my goal.  I have never discussed the issue with my cardiologist (who recently retired so I am without one now) only with my family physician and she has never said that I would have to stay on it to keep my valve healthy.

Marie Myers  I have also been on a statin since my surgery. My doctor feels the anti inflammatory benefits of the 20 mg atorvastatin are important as well as the cholesterol lowering properties.

TIMOTHY HAMILTON  Thanks all for your comments. Maybe when I have a checkup in June he will lower me from 10mg to 5mg like you Mary Milewski. 

Rita Savelis  Had OHS 7 years ago (2 valves replaced) and have never been on a statin. Praise be. I have enough other meds to take. No cholesterol problems either.

  Great to hear you are recovering well. Continued good health and smooth recovery. God bless you and Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to you and your family.

Marie Myers  I would try 2 weeks of over-the-counter famotidine 20 mg (once a day). It helped me with a recent bout of stress-related nausea . When I was discharged from the hospital following my heart surgery in 2017, the cardiologist had me on it for a month. Hope that helps!

Rose Madura  Yes, I had trouble with nausea for a while with certain odors -peppermint was one of them. It finally went away but I'm sorry I don't remember how long it took.

Deena Z  Hi Timothy, you might want to check if the nausea occurs when you stand up from a sitting or lying position or do something else that lowers your blood pressure. One of my signs of nausea coming-on was a significant decrease in BP. Hope yours goes away soon or you can control through meds like Marie suggested, because you don't need this feeling on top of mending!

Mike Tirrell  Hi Timothy. My surgery was on 8/3 so I am about 5.5 weeks out. I did have an issue with nausea while I was in the hospital. It started when I was in ICU...I cannot explain the fear of feeling a bout of nausea coming on with a freshly bandaged incision on my chest. They were able to give me anti-nausea medication to control it. I believe mine was caused by the oxy I was taking at the time. Once I was a little more lucid (about a day after surgery), I noticed that the oxy was making me hallucinate, making the room spin, the walls move, etc. which was contributing to my nausea. I immediately asked to have oxy removed from my medication list and managed pain with delaudud and tylenol from there forward. That seemed to do the trick for me. Whatever the cause of yours, I imagine it is temporary and treatable. I would your doctor for a recommendation/prescription for something to help until it works itself out.

TIMOTHY HAMILTON  Thanks all. I'm not on any pain meds, so it's not caused by that. Some days are better than others , so maybe the nausea will go away all together soon. :>)

Rita Savelis  Alas, sleeping can be difficult. And 16 days is very early. Time resolved this issue for me, and when I couldn't sleep I stayed up and read or drank tea. I feel for you. I did learn to sleep on my back after 6 weeks of forced back sleep. Now (6 yrs later) it's a position that works for me.
Some people use pillows and foam shapes to get comfortable. Take care.

J H Mattingly  Hang in there Timothy. I think it will resolve itself over a little bit more time. Your body is still in recovery mode, so harder to get a "normal" night of sleep. I "slept" in my recliner for about a month, before I could transition to the bed, simply due to the chest discomfort. I gradually was able to get a more restful sleep as the discomfort abated.
You will be fine....just takes a lot of patience.

E Taub  It will get better, just takes time. Also you are probably still napping during the day? If so you are getting sleep, just not what you are used to. I tried to pick a tv show I'd watch when I couldn't sleep so at least I had something waiting for me. I'd flip it on and usually fell asleep in the middle of it.

Suelynn Hanegraaf  Yeah . . . agree with the others. Getting a restful sleep takes time. I used my heart-shaped pillow given to me by Cleveland Clinic post-surgery to kinda "hug" while resting. Also, I could not have slept without a white noise machine (to lower the sound of my heartbeat pulsing loudly in my ears at night when it was quiet). Favorite sounds - raindrops and storms, and ocean waves!

  Thank you for posting Timothy. Sleep is usually difficult after surgery but as all of us are saying, it will get better. Good to hear from you. God bless you

Patsy Stewart  Nighttime can be sooooo long when you can’t sleep! Are you sleeping in the daytime? My cardiologist told me to take an hour long nap in the daytime, and other than that, try to stay out of the bed. He wanted me sitting up as much as possible. I set an hour alarm and took a nap after lunch. My room has no windows, so it was very easy for me to conk out for an hour. Nighttime was a different story. Like clockwork, my eyes would pop open around 2am, and it would be a struggle drifting in and out of sleep for the remainder of the night. Try to sleep in your bed as much as you can, and get up and sit up until you see you’re getting sleepy, or….just try to lay there with your eyes closed and focus on resting instead of getting frustrated that you can’t sleep. That thought process seemed to help me.

Richard Munson  I recall them asking me after surgery in hospital if i needed a sleep enhancer. In my case i did not but my roommate did. Sleep is an aid in recovery. Sleeping in the back of a duece and a half bouncing over ruts after being up all night at ft. Sill in oklahoma. may have conditioned my body for sleeping anywhere, anytime.

Rita Savelis  Yes. I also recommend occasionally taking a sleep aid if you really can't sleep. Your body needs the rest to heal. I occasionally took a pill so that I could sleep. As we've all said, it gets better with time. But it's hard. Take care.

Tom Everson  Great nice of you to keep us informed. Hard part is over. The heart team knows what to do just follow their advice Everyone has their own healing schedule so do not compare. Take one day at a time

Rose Madura  Glad to hear. Thanks for letting us know. May Tim's recovery be uneventful and routine. God bless you!

  Thank you Vicki for letting us know of Timothy’s surgery. We will keep him in prayer for a speedy recovery. God bless you both

TIMOTHY HAMILTON  My surgery was two weeks ago today. I am happy to say that I don't have much pain and seem to be healing well. The visiting nurse scared me yesterday because he acted concerned that he can still hear a slight murmur and sometimes my pressure gets a little high, but I saw my regular cardiologist yesterday and he said both are perfectly normal and things will settle down. Has anyone else experienced those symptoms after surgery?