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Post Open Heart Surgery Recovery
I had my tricuspid and mitral valves repaired in early April 24, just after my 86th birthday, so I am now at the 21 week mark after surgery and am disappointed with the slowness of my recovery.
I regularly exercise at home every day, following exercises set by both my physiotherapists and at my gym under the supervision of my Exercise Physiologist. The exercises are mainly concerned with the lower body and include Stand Up/Sit Downs (STSs), leg extensions with resistance band (home) and gym machine, calf raises, marching on the spot, sled pushes and walking. I also do the usual dumb bell exerises to keep my upper body in trim.
My gripe is that I still cannot stand up from a standard size (19", 48cm) dining room chair without using my hands to push up, indicating that my quads and hammys still need a lot of work. I am improving gradually in that I am slowly meeting exercise targets, and can now walk 1km every second day, but sometimes run out of puff and walk just half of that. All the pundits say that it takes a long while to recover from heart surgery, but I reckon I should be a bit more improved that I am. Problem is, it's hard to find someone who has undergone the same procedure and with whom one can compare notes.
Is there anyone out there who is experiencing the same disappointment at the slow progress in getting back to pre-op fitness and, particularly, endurance?
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Hello @graeme58604, and welcome to Mayo Clinic Connect.
I'm glad you found this online support group and I hope that someone with your same surgery chimes in to answer your questions.
In the meantime, I can share my open heart surgery story with you in the hopes that there is something in common that will help alleviate some of your concerns.
First of all, thank goodness you are doing as well as you are! It is absolutely a miracle of modern medicine that we can have our chest cut open, operate on our heart, wire us back up and we go home to live another day!
I had open heart surgery at the Mayo Clinic (MN) in 2020. I was told it would take 6 months to a year for my heart to completely heal. I had a septal and papillary myectomy. They took a portion of my left heart wall and part of the top part out. My recovery was pretty normal I think. I had to wait 3 months to start cardiac rehab.
But before that, I was walking every day. I was a hard-core hiker/walker before this happened and so being in good physical shape was very helpful.
We are not as young as we once were, maybe in our minds we are, but reality is different. It takes us longer to bounce back, and sometimes we don't bounce back to where we were before.
I think you sound remarkable! I would advise you to continue pushing yourself a little bit more each day, but listen to your body too. You know you better than anyone else, so if you feel like you can walk further, walk further. If you feel like you can lift more, lift more. But also don't overdo it. Your chest was cut open. It takes time to heal completely. Eat healthy, drink water, be happy you have a brand new valves under the hood!
Were you very active before your surgery? What does your doctor say about your progress?
Wow, Debra, youve been thru a pretty serious procedure too, and I'm surprised that your rehab was deferred for three months. I did better than that - ICU for 5 days, rehab in the general ward for another week, then rehab at a specialist rehab hospital for further week.
I wasn't very active at all pre-op. I developed cardiomyopathy and AF in late 2022 and went downhill from there to the extent that my cardio guys said I'd be wise to undertake OHS, the alternatives of do nothing, or to rely on medication weren't realistic options. Pretty much laid it on the line!
GP says I'm progressing well, but is surprised that my cardiologist and the operating surgeon haven't bothered to ask. This is part of my problem. I would have thought that they would be up-to-date with progress markers and could let me know where I stood in comparison with others who had undergone the same procedure. But no - both the cardio guy and the surgeon don't want to see me untill early in the New Year, which I suppose is at least an indication that I'll survive until then?
I'd like to repeat my plea to hear from anyone who has gone thru a similar ordeal to mine and who can give me some idea of their experiences regarding energy and endurance levels at a similar time following the surgery - in my case, approaching 6 months.