William's Posts

Here it is almost 6 months after my first surgery to replace my aortic valve. Today I finished my 36 cardiac rehab sessions. I am feeling much stronger, still experience a small amount of pain in the areas where the pacemaker was implanted and where the incision was made in my abdomen to do the pericardial window. I have encountered some a-fib while exercising but it doesn't last very long so the doctor is not worried about it. I will continue working out at a local gym and try to build on the progress I made in rehab.

Yesterday I was released for the 2nd time in a month. Well my earlier post about draining the fluid from around my heart and lungs was way too optimistic. It turns out it required another surgery to do a pericardial window to remove the fluid from around my heart, at the same time 2 liters of fluid was drained from around my right lung. When I woke up from the surgery I had 2 drain tubes coming out of my chest, after a few days these were removed. They had taken me off of coumadin before surgery so a few days after surgery they restarted the coumadin it took a few days for the INR number to get high enough for them to release me. I was surprised that this surgery was more painful than the valve replacement surgery. Last night was the best nights sleep I have had in a month. One benefit of having 2 surgeries and spending 23 days in the hospital is that I have lost 20 lbs. I am looking forward to recovering at home and slowly regaining my strength.