Road to Recovery - One Week Home

I have been home now for about a week and for the most part it has all been good, slowly walking a bit longer and a bit faster, generally over 10,000 steps per day and walking as far as 2 miles in one go. Today I walked to A&W and back home which is a 3+ mile round trip. My walking pace is getting close to 3 miles per hour so this too is an improvement.

I still really need to watch my diet as over the weekend (super Bowl) I was not on my best eating behavior and as a result on Monday slipped back into AFIB for a bout 6 hours but thankfully I came out and back to Sinus Rhythm pretty quickly. Being in AFIB I do not feel very energetic and when I went for my walk while in AFIB I did feel a bit light headed at one point. When in Sinus Rhythm I feel really good and do not get short of breath or light headed at all even on longer faster walks.

My chest is still a bit sore being that the sternum was cut right down the middle for my open heart surgery, it will take at least 2 months for it to heal and right now I am exactly 4 weeks post surgery. This journey back to what will be my new normal heart function will take several months but I can say I feel a ton better than I did pre surgery so I am very optimistic I will be able to do most of what I was doing before I was having the heart trouble, just maybe a bit more conservative and not pushing myself too extreme. After all you only have one heart...

Where Have I Been Update?

This video is primarily for my viewers over on the Replica Airguns channels as I have not posted anything about what's been going on with me the last month and a bit. My Airgun channel does not have very much personal content like my GetFitOver40 channel does, so I wanted to fill them in on where I have been and what's been going on.

In this video I talk about being in the hospital for a month because I was experiencing shortness of breath and a feeling of pressure in my diaphragm area which was later found out to be a heart problem.

Unknown to me I had been born with a Congenital Heart Defect where my Aortic Valve was defective which over time had cause the Aortic Root area to double in size (3cm normal to 6cm).

This defect caused my heart to work a lot harder than normal making it enlarge over time which is not good and reduces it's pumping ability. Before my operation my heart function was below 20%, a normal healthy heart is around 60%.

While in the hospital I had open heart surgery on my Aortic valve replacing it along with a section above it. I also had a Pacemaker/Defibrillator put in. There where a lot of concerns because my heart was also enlarged and not functioning that well, the doctor even said they may not be able to get me off of bypass which would then require an emergency heart transplant. The good news is the operation went well and no need for a new heart at least for now...

I was in the hospital for longer than normal because of my enlarged heart and because of all the stress to it. I was in and out of what's called Atrial Fibrillation. This is when the heart beats very irregularly and faster than normal. It can be short term or longer term and can sort itself out or require intervention to help get back to a Sinus Rhythm. At the time of this post I believe it has gone back to the normal Sinus Rhythm, so fingers crossed it stays this way.

As you can imagine, this has been a life changing event and means my lifestyle will be changing a bit. I will not be doing anything to overstress my heart but that does not mean no more fitness for me, just a different fitness approach. Perhaps a more scaled back approach but I am always up for a challenge and this is no different in terms of how I would approach any challenge in my life.

So if you are a Replica Airguns follower and want to follow my "Road to Recovery" you can do that over on my GetFitOver40 channels. Other than that I will be making regular Airgun Videos moving forward now that I am at home.

Road to Recovery - I’m Really Going Home

After several disappointing days where I thought I was going home but the hospital decided it was best for me to stay another night, I am now finally really going home!

To be honest my spirit was broken and I was not in a good place, so going home for me was a wish come true. I can barely believe after a month in hospital it is finally happening.

My heart is still in a state of AFIB but it is somewhat controlled with medication at least to the point where it has slowed down to a more tolerable rate. It may find its way out of AFIB over time but in the event that it doesn't, I have an appointment in 5 weeks for another Cardioinversion to shock it back into a normal non AFIB mode (Sinus Rythm). It should hopefully stick this time as my heart will have had some time to recover and I should be holding less water even though I have lost a lot so far there is still a bit to go.

I guess I will have to start doing more for myself now, nobody is taking care of me hand and foot, but I don't mind. I really needed to get out of the hospital and back to a somewhat normal life, just not a very busy one... The plan is to keep it simple and for now several short walks each day and build on it over time. There will be no weight lifting for at least another 5-7 weeks and that is also as long as I am out of AFIB.

I have already lost a ton of muscle but that was to be expected. By the time I start lifting again it will be like starting over again but I accept the challenge and hopefully you can join me and perhaps we can get back into shape again together.

Road to Recovery - Will Today be the Day I Go Home

I have written a similar post a couple times this week but as it turned out the hospital decided to keep me another day, we are now going on three days and to be honest my spirit is a bit broken. Yesterday was my wife Nicole's birthday and I really wanted to go home and celebrate with a nice healthy dinner out but it did not happen. Will today be the day I get to go home? I really don't know and maybe that's what is so discouraging for me is not knowing when.

I have done everything I can on my end by going for walks and showing them I can physically do what is required to leave the hospital but what I can't do is make my blood thin enough or calm my heart down enough for the doctors to be happy with me leaving on a good baseline.

The blood thinning is the easier of the two, it's mainly about using a drug called Warferin to get my INR up to around 2-3 which the new type of metal mechanical valves require to stay in peak performance.

The bigger issue is getting my heart to settle down a bit, one side is beating fairly normal while the other side is kinda beating in double time. I had the Cardioversion done a while back which fixed this but often times it does not last for too long and so treatment with drugs is the next step to calming down the heart as it is very stressed from the operation and already not being in great shape to begin with.

So as of right now I don't know if I am going home today? I will add to this post as the day progresses and I know more about the situation. I would really love to go home this afternoon and maybe even see my son play soccer this evening but again this is out of my hands...

UPDATE: So I am staying yet another night. My blood is thin enough now but my heart rate is still too high to let me go home. The Docs put me on a new drug to help slow down and regulate my heart but that only happened mid day. I spoke with one of the doctors today and it really comes down to just getting my heart rate under control, once that happen I will be a free man, while I am sure there will be lots of hospital visits down the road. So here's to tomorrow? Will I get to go home?

Road to Recovery - Pace Yourself

So it's about 6:30am Tuesday morning and it doesn't look like I'm getting back to sleep so why not write up todays update or at least go over what I know is supposed to happen, I may have to add to this post or update it depending on what happens with everything.

So far the plan is for me to have my Pacemaker/Defibrillator installed this afternoon around 1:30pm so right now I can't eat or drink anything till after the procedure. Not a fan of that but my food and drink later in the day will be awesome :)

I am for the most part ready to leave the hospital in terms of getting around and mobility, but this operation has required that they thicken my blood back up to more normal ranges and then after the operation it takes a day or two to thin the blood again which is what I will need life long now to keep my new valve working at it's best and avoiding future work or replacement on it.

That's all I know as of this morning but I will be adding to this post as the day progresses :)

Update: In the first video clip I take you with me on my walk and show you my route (Not a lot of options) that happens several times per day, somehow I managed to get 5000 steps in yesterday doing mainly this walk. Today I will try for this same but I'm really not sure how I will feel after my operation?

In video clip two I talk post procedure while I finally get to eat and drink after about 18 hours of food and water fasting. I talk about how I am feeling and what I expect to happen now. By the way as of around 8pm I am at 3300 steps and plan to get some more walking this evening so it look like I may get in my 5000 steps even with the operation :)