Category: Aortic Stenosis

Postings having to do with my discovery of aortic stenosis, my decisions on how to handle it, my surgery, and my recovery.

Discharged, with restrictions

I had my 30-day checkup at Dr. Gaudiani’s office today; they were happy with my progress and they don’t see any reason for me to return!

I’m not completely recovered yet, though, so my activities are still restricted for some time to come. Here’s what I have to look forward to.

I can start driving tomorrow, but I need to avoid heavy traffic until mid-March (I guess that translates to “stay off freeways”). And I should be especially careful about bad weather (at least I don’t have to worry about snow here).

I’m allowed to move my arms freely, as long as I don’t hyper-extend myself or reach backwards; in fact, they want me to stretch after my shower. Until today, I wasn’t supposed to raise my arms above my head except to wash my hair, and then I was only supposed to use one arm at a time.

I still can’t lift more than 5 pounds for the rest of this month; then I’ll be limited to 10 pounds till March 15th, and 20 pounds until April 15th. Once tax day comes, I’ll be allowed to bear as much of a burden as I want.

They want me to slowly cut down my pain relievers; I need to stop taking Tramadol before I start driving. As far as Tylenol goes, I should switch my nighttime dose to just before bed; I can stop taking the midday dose when I’m ready, and if that goes well, drop the morning dose. The bedtime dose may continue for quite a while.

They were happy with my walking (both distance and pace), but suggested I be better about bringing water with me.

Golf is not going to happen soon – I can try putting at the beginning of March. A week later, I can chip – if that’s successful (which would be a pleasant change from before the operation), I can hit some balls at the driving range a week later. And if I feel no pain from that, I can try a 9-hole round at the start of April. Bowling and bocce are out for a while, too.

I also need to be very careful and keep the scar from my incision from getting sunburned; if it sees the light of day, I need to cover it with SPF 72 sunscreen.

And the best news: I can stop wearing my HeartHugger and I don’t have to use my incentive spirometer any more, either.

The answer is “yes”

The question, for a frightening amount, is in the “Exercise” category: “Is it possible to overdo exercise during post-surgery recovery?”

I walked something over 8 miles yesterday; the last walk was fairly late and I felt a little achy towards the end, but it was nothing that acetaminophen couldn’t cure. Or so I thought.

I slept pretty well, too – until I woke up at 5:30 with a very sore back. No matter how I moved, I could’t make it feel better, so I finally got up along with Diane at 6am. A hot shower and breakfast helped a lot, too – enough so that I made a pie for the Oneg Shabbat tomorrow. I even remembered to take care of some reimbursement paperwork from IBM, too (we’ll see if they consider golf classes to be “retraining”).

But around 11:30, my back started hurting again. I had to go pick up lunch, but that was a short walk to Safeway (very slow, though). I took a Tramedol with lunch, and felt a little better. But it didn’t last, and the back pains were soon accompanied by an achy chest.

All of my doctors’ offices were closed for lunch, so I couldn’t call right away. When the cardiologist opened, they said it soundled like musculo-skeletal problems and to call my family doctor or visit the ER. I didn’t want to visit the ER, but I had no way to get to the family doctor, so I decided to wait.

But it kept hurting more and more. I had been planning to go out for a long walk with a doctor friend, so I called him – when I described my problem, he suggested calling 9-1-1!

In the meantime, Diane had come back to her office – she said she’d come home and take me where ever I thought would help. And by the time she got home, I was convinced that I needed a trip to the ER.

Off we went. As soon as I got to the triage window, I used those magic words: “chest pains”. Someone was helping me in a minute, and I was given a bed in ER right away.

They strapped me to an EKG – normal. They took X-rays – normal. They gave me pain killers (morphene for sure, possibly other things), which made a big difference – my pain level dropped from 6 (higher than it had been at Sequoia, even right after the operation) to 3. And they took a CT scan – also normal. By this time, I was dozing off, and my pain level was down to a 1 or so.

When all was said and done, the doctor decided that the problems were almost certainly from overdoing my exercise earlier this week. He increased my aspirin prescription to a 325mg pill (up from 81mg) for the next few days, and urged me to take Tramodol if I hurt. And if I don’t feel good on Monday, I need to visit my cardiologist.

This turns out to be a good weekend for doing less, anyway – we’ve got Shabbat services, a play, and the Superbowl. I see lots of sitting-down time – just what the doctor ordered!