So I recently had a 2 month echo after mitral valve repair surgery and they found “mild residual regurgitation”. Now I have read that this is normal and that it should remain mild if the repair is stable. My surgeon has not yet reviewed the results. Does anyone else still have mild regurgitation after surgery?
I’m a month post mitral valve repair. The past few days my monitors (BP monitor/ finger oxygen sensor/ and my Apple Watch ) have not been able to pick up my pulse. My blood pressure is fine, but my pulse has grown faint. I’m on metoprolol and Jardiance and I know they can contribute to this. If I get up and walk a few blocks all the monitors work, but at rest they can’t get an accurate reading. Has anyone else experienced this?
After about 10 days after surgery, I finally got a little sleep on Friday. Saturday a new pain started to show up and it’s much worse now. I think I now have Pericarditis. From what I’ve read that could mean another week or two without sleep. I know many here have dealt with it. Does it take that long to go away? Tylenol isn’t doing anything for the current pain.
So many people have so many questions when they are getting prepared for this surgery, I just thought I’d share my experiences dad by day for the first couple weeks.
I had mitral valve repair in Chicago, with a Maze procedure and a valve clip to prevent stroke.
My left atrium was almost 3x the size of a normal one.
Day 1 - Tuesday was awful. They had me get up and it was tough. The pain was not bad though until it was time to sleep. I was never a back sleeper so I never fell asleep. Too uncomfortable. Watching a clock all night with a chest tube and neck iv was one of the hardest experiences I’ve had. I felt so bad for the nurse, my back pain was so bad I had to keep asking her to adjust things every 20 minutes at some point.
Day 2 - Despite not sleeping, day 2 was ok. I was able to get up easier and they removed the chest tube. Unfortunately it did not help me sleep. Night number 2 was sleepless. It was easier to tolerate though because no more chest tube. ( no pain removing)
Day 3 - am moved to a normal room. At this point I haven’t slept in 48 hours. A lot of the day was spent removing lines and adding new ones. Luckily I was able to lay more on my side on day 3 and I finally got 6 hours of sleep. (A small miracle)
For me none of my problems were from surgery pain. My problems were all sleep related. I must have a small curve in my spine because after 2 nights I had horrible pain right between my shoulder blades from sleeping on my back, not the surgery. Surgery related I felt good and took a few walks without issue.
Day 4.- this day was frustrating. Despite getting sleep, I felt sluggish most of the morning. Luckily I took a short morning nap and walked a lot that day. I thought I was making real progress, and possibly going home, but my hemoglobin dropped later in the day and I felt weak. Short of oxygen. I was only able to sleep 4 hours on Friday night. I’d like to describe hospital beds as a slap of concrete wrapped in a rubber bag. The pain in between the shoulders was bad. I was close to being anemic, so they said don’t plan on going home tomorrow.
Day-5. I thought I was really regressing. I felt really weak and they took me for a chest xray. I felt 2 more days minimum I would be stuck there. My potassium had dropped, so they gave me a boost and it woke me up. I was able to walk, but still a little lightheaded. After my blood tests came in, the nurse stopped by and said my hemoglobin improved over night and they want to send me home. I couldn’t believe it. I was still lightheaded when walking, but they said my blood pressure was perfect. And it might have more to do with vertigo than anything else. So they sent me home agreeing that the most important thing I needed was sleep. One thing that did happen was my ankles swelled up a lot. They said it was normal and gave me a diuretic and said I would pee it out.
My valve is perfect, but obviously my heart is not used to so much less blood, so my left ventricle dropped from perfectly normal efficiency to only 40%. So now I have medications to help get back to normal. I did experience some abnormal heart rhythms the night before, but they said it was surgery related and not afib. Hopefully my first night at home results in more sleep. Fingers crossed.
I had mitral valve repair on Tuesday and they keep telling me how great it went, however they want to use a combination of 4 drugs to “remodel” my heart. They said my left ventricle is enlarged and their hopis that my heart will return to normal size. Has anyone done this? Did it work?
Any advice for dealing with sunlight while on amiodarone? It says you can’t even sit next to a window. Thoughts?
Has anyone recently received a bioengineered replacement valve? My doctor said that today’s valves can last 20 to 25 years, which is a lot longer than what I have read. He said they were good for around 15 years, but now they have been improved. Seems like a lot of advantages over mechanical. If so, how is your after care?
This weekend I suffered my second occurrence of Afib. The first time I spent 48 hours on a drip that did very little before undergoing cardioversion. Had a great week after, but the following week tests revealed my mitral valve needs repair. Suddenly I was getting very little sleep and a resting blood pressure around 150. Now here I am stuck in the hospital with a second attack. This one was worse as my heart rate hit 180. It was like a panic attack brought on by worrying about sleep, blood pressure, and the valve. So with today being a holiday I have to wait for tomorrow for another cardioversion. Today my heart rate is consistently bouncing in the 130s and they tell me, “It’s totally normal.” Yesterday’s medication had me in the 90s and 115’s. They tried amioderone today and it is less effective. Any tips on how to sleep with my chest bouncing around all night?
Now my biggest challenge will be to try and get enough sleep and low blood pressure to avoid this from happening again once they send me home. I wish they could just go in and fix my valve, but that’s not how it works. Still probably a month away from being able to get it done.
My regurgitation is at a level of 4 out of 4. Surprisingly, I feel pretty good, but with all these tests and appointments I am probably a month away from being able to get surgery. They don’t seem concerned about this, but no one knows how long I’ve been in this state. I tried to get it checked out in December, but they didn’t catch anything even though I felt palpitations. My local hospital will be able to get me in a couple weeks before an expert in the field will. Just wondering if anyone had a long wait.