Walter's Journal

It has been a long time since I last logged on to this site. 661 days have passed since my heart operation. That kinda puts everything into perspective. 1 year, 9 months, and 21 days to be clear. It seems like an eternity. So much has taken place in such a short time, and yet everything is passing so quickly at the same time.

I did finally find steady work this year in April, and am grateful for that, however I am having trouble sleeping at night. I have a pacemaker, which was inserted around September of last year, and my question is to anyone experiencing similar issues. I wake up every night around 2:00 am. Whether I go to sleep at 9 or 11 it doesn't matter. I wake up and can't get back to sleep. This started after I took on my new job, but only fairly recently (within the past two months or so).

Stress? Yes. Unbearable? No. In fact, once I'm at work it's really a breeze.


I saw my electrophysiologist recently and they adjusted the overnight threshold down to 50 beats per minute rather than 60, but I'm wondering if those having pacemakers have similar issues sleeping through the night. I know it may be age related also, but I never had problems sleeping before.

It's coming up on my 1 year anniversary. March 8 will be a year. I feel good for the most part. I haven't had any notable bouts with AFib, my heart murmur is gone, thanks to Dr. Juan Grau at The Valley Hospital, Ridgewood, NJ, and the pacemaker is doing it's job. Surprise, surprise, they took me off of Eliquis, which I never felt I needed in the first place, but I took it per doctor's orders, along with all the other stuff. Regardless, even my doctor, my electrophysiologist, said that I wasn't really a candidate for blood clots, and the procedure I had done removed the area in the heart that blood clots tend to form. My ribs and chest still kind of pop a little bit when I get up in the morning, but I'm not in pain because of it. Once I stand up an stretch a little everything is fine. I guess it'll go away completely eventually. Now I'm looking for a job. I've been turned down by more places, some of which is because of my age, but also I've had a physical exam hold me up. When they found the pacemaker that put a red flag on me.. I know they can't discriminate, but they do, and unfortunately that is the reality of life. Regardless, I am working as an independent contractor for a friend of mine until I either figure out what to do, or something comes through for me sometime soon. It has been a very long and strange two years, not just because of Covid-19, which I never contracted thankfully, but having heart issues arise in coincidence with Covid-19, everything is just bizarre. I'm feeling good. I just have to keep my optimism high.

Thank you again everyone for your responses; Richard Munson, Tom Everson, Susan Lynn, Tracy Fallu, and Patsy Stewart. I don't see a way of liking them and I think it is necessary to acknowledge that I read your comments and appreciate them very much. Because of you I am looking forward to doing this rehab thing.

Thank you Richard Munson, Cheryl Mann, Susan Lynn, and Lynn Loudermilk! I appreciate the response. I'm starting cardio rehab next week and I'm curious what they do to you LOL.

I am in my 8th week of recovery after surgery. Last week, Monday, April 19, I felt like I turned the corner. Up until then I was still getting dizzy and fell short of breath when I stood up and took a few steps. But my stamina returned to me last week. I didn't realize until then it really was my body that needed to be strengthened. Now it seems however that I am up one day and down the next. Partly I blame the medication I am on. Entresto in particular. A visiting nurse explained that they are keeping my blood pressure low as I heal, but the Entresto, which controls blood pressure, is kicking in to prevent a rise in blood pressure if I exert any energy. I was up doing fine yesterday, but today I don't have energy. I seems to be every other day. Still I am getting stronger.

Shortly after being discharged on April 10, 2020, I had an appointment to see my newly adopted cardiologist, Dr. A. I was now taking three different medications (and I don't want to take any), so I said, "I feel we are only bandaging something, which really needs to be fixed." I asked if there was a case for me to have heart surgery to repair my valve. I wasn't thinking in terms of AFib, because my rhythm was fine. In turn I was told that my Afib may possibly return, and the true solution for that was to do an Ablation. I already knew about the Ablation from my Electrophysiologist, but I didn't like the way it sounded. I needed to think about it before I made that decision. Regardless, I was told, in order to move forward, an Echocardiogram would be necessary to determine if my valve was operable. That was a no brainer for me, and we scheduled it.

On Tuesday I took a walk outside and was fine. Tuesday overnight however my AFib returned. I've been in and out of arrhythmia ever since I had heart surgery. It's me, not you. The signals to my heart, which cause it to fire, are not arriving synchronously and my heart flutters. But my heart rate jumps up to between 110 and 130 bpm when I am at rest. I'm not telling you this to scare you off. I had no choice but to have Mitral Valve Surgery and a Maze procedure was also performed at the time to try and stop the AFib. It hasn't yet. That doesn't mean it won't. Keep in mind I am still healing, and while I am somewhat disappointed that my results didn't go as expected, nevertheless I'm still glad I did it. They fixed my valve. I called my Electrophysiologist and they took me that same evening. I was given another medication, which supports the Amiodarone in controlling rhythm and took it Wednesday night. Somehow, a miracle took place in the middle of the night my heart returned to normal rhythm and my heart rate returned to 72 bpm. I felt great all day Thursday and all day today. I'm not out of the woods, but I'm 90%, or so I feel.

After being diagnosed with AFib in April of 2020, and spending 4 days in the hospital, they got my heart rate back down to a normal level and I was discharged, still with symptoms of AFib however, I was on three medications; Eliquis to prevent blood clots, Metoprolol to treat high blood pressure and heart failure, and Amiodarone to control my rhythm. It was a couple weeks later that I went to discuss my options with my newly adopted resident Electrophysiologist Dr. S. I was told by the good doctor that there were two approaches, one short term, and the other long term, used to rectify the AFib arrhythmia. The first, being short term, is called a Cardioversion, which was performed in the Hospital. A method of shocking the heart back into normal rhythm. The second, being long term, is called a Cardiac Ablation, which is performed similar to a catheterization from the groin leading to the heart chambers where they essentially kill the misfiring nerves that are causing the AFib. I began with the Cardioversion procedure, which is a short procedure. They knocked me out and shocked my heart with 1.21 gigawatts of electricity (no they didn't, I'm just joking). It is a safe low voltage that passes through electrodes they put on your chest above your heart and on your back. It only took one shock to restore my rhythm and I was fine when I woke up. I felt 100% better immediately. And I remained in sinus rhythm, with a heart rate of 58 bpm, for the rest of 2020.

I took my first walk outdoors today. It took me 5 minutes to walk one tenth of a mile. So my speed is about 1 mile per 50 minutes. I offered to take the mail to the post office, but said to my wife it would take me about 3 hours. You can do the math. I'm not in bad shape, but after not walking for three weeks my legs are heavy and I am clumsy. The doctor told me to walk for 10 minutes every 4 hours or so, and that is my schedule. Living the dream!

Indestructible. That's me. Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound. I was Superman (or so I thought). March 15, 2020 came and that was my last day of work. I thought I was free and clear of coming into contact with infected people, so actually, I was kind of glad about it. On Thursday, April 2, 2020 my heart started beating funny. I was aware of it and it kept me in and out of sleep that whole night. It continued to have a funny rhythm throughout Friday, and I felt okay otherwise, but it still had me concerned to the degree that it was unusual. By Saturday, it seemed to subside and I was relieved about that until Saturday night, when I started having stamina issues. Over the course of Saturday night into Sunday I became easily fatigued. My lungs became congested. If I attempted to exert any energy, ten to twenty steps was my limit. 3 steps up a stairway and my butt went down. On Monday, April 6, 2020 I went for a Covid-19 test. They didn't even test me. I was in such bad shape by then they sent me directly to the Emergency Room. My Heart Rate was 160 bpm standing at rest. And then the Vampires came to drink my blood. I had IV's all over me. It took a couple of days to determine that it was AFib, which I never had any symptoms of before, because the entire hospital was filled with Covid-19 patients, and that was most prevalent on their minds. You never know what's gonna knock you down.

I had heart surgery on Monday, March 8. I was a child when I became ill with rheumatic fever, which damaged my mitral valve and hence left me with a heart murmur. I lived with it all my life with no noticeable hinderance, or so I believed because I don't know what life would have been like with a normal heart. Regardless, as time went by, more and more doctors would tell me I have significant heart disease. I'm 63, and I would reply, "I know. I have lived with it all my life." At the same time I was not in the position to have heart surgery, which caused me to get medical clearance before a company would hire me. When Covid-19 hit in February, I lost my job on March 15, and was actually relieved because I work with the public and thought I'd be safe. Not so. Two weeks later if developed AFib, which I, and the Hospital, mistook for Covid-19 symptoms. Shortness of breath and fatigue were my symptoms. I couldn't take ten steps without collapsing. It took a year of testing to determine if I was eligible for Heart Surgery. The combination of mitral valve regurgitation and the AFib put me in the slot. They were able to repair my Heart Valve with the existing tissue, but I had complications controlling the AFib. It is still not 100% under control and I am being watched, but they are confident that it will resolve over time. We shall see. I was in the Hospital for 3 weeks. with these complications. I just got out on Friday, March 26. I can only say that I am so glad I had the surgery to fix my heart and even though there were some struggles in my case, I highly recommend following through with surgery if you are in a similar situation. I'm now in the 6 week recovery period and will update any changes as I progress.