Hi Bruce!
I hope you don’t mind me saying that you feel like an old friend now since you were the very first person to reply to my initial post and your message uplifted me greatly in those dark and scary moments after the diagnosis! And I am equally happy to hear from you now! Thank you for your optimistic vibe, it helps a lot!

Yes, heartbeat is quite loud, the clicking of the valve kind of comes and goes now... could hear it more at the beginning. I am not bothered by it anymore... my kids are still amazed by the sound! I have read somewhere that the noise gets more subdued for some as the pericardium heals and our own tissue grows over the valve and the graft.

As long as the heart stays steady I am good, it’s the irregularity that’s somewhat unpleasant ( or mostly freaking me out) when it happens. I only had two episodes of a irregular heartbeat, the cardiologist was not too concerned with the first one but decided on monitoring when it happened again a few days ago. Enter Metoprolol.

I am seeing the cardiologist on Monday morning and I guess it will be decided then whether I can start the rehab as planned. I have been looking forward to it, being more active and having some schedule again.

Really nice to hear from you and thank you again for all your support!
Ilona