Valve Replacement Surgery - Follow-up Care Is Critical!

Allen, bless his heart, fixed breakfast, took me on a walk, and then took me to see Dr. Blake for the 2nd follow-up appointment.

I told Dr. Blake about the pain in my lower right lung and in the center of my chest below the sternum. She could see that I was huffing and puffing and short of breath She said that she thought I was retaining fluid and adjusted my medications to include almost double the diuretics I was taking. The idea is to pull more fluids off so that I don't develop pneumonia or other complications from my heart repair surgery.

In addition, she also ordered a chest xray, an echo, and more blood work to be completed before I see her next week for my 3rd follow-up. I feel like Dr. Blake is doing everything in her power to make sure that my very complex heart valve repair surgery has a good outcome.

There is no doubt in my mind that frequent and good follow-up is critical to a complete recovery. From my own experience, you can be feeling like the worst is over only to be faced with a new uphill battle. Once you know that setbacks are a normal part of recovery, you won't be as discouraged when new challanges present themselves. In other words, it is safe to say that you can expect the unexpected.

When I asked Dr. Blake about the still visible pounding in my neck, she told me that the echo should tell her what is going on, but that probably the extra fluid was preventing the timely healing of my tricuspid and mitral valve repairs.

She also said that allthough it might seem like we were going up and down the ladder with the medications, it was necessary to find the unique combination that would best provide a full recovery for me. She indicated that all-in-all things were progressing as expected. I think she thinks that I'm a little impatient.

Additionally, Dr. Blake explained that valve replacement surgery and valve repair surgery to remedy heart valve reguritation and damaged or diseased heart valves involves longer recovery times than heart by-pass surgery. In heart by-pass surgery, the vessels on the outside of the heart are by-passed while valve replacement and valve repair surgery involve actually operating within the heart itself.

Talk about exhausted! When I got through with my visits to the INR clinic and Dr. Blake, I tried to get the chest xray done to save a trip the next day; however, I was short of breath and hurting, I totally hit the wall, I just couldn't do it, and I had to get Allen to bring me home. We would have to save the xray for tomorrow. You can push yourself to a point, but you'll know when there is absolutely no more gas in your tank.