Search This Blog

Tuesday, June 28, 2011

28 Weeks After Open Heart Surgery

The distance between Open Heart Surgery and Recovery is increasing!  After 28 weeks (over 6 months), most of the reading that I did on the recovery process is true - 6 months & you will see a change!  And I do!  My walking is improving.  Remember back in November?  I had trouble walking up stairs, or walking around the block!  Now I am walking over 30-45 minutes, with no problem.  And with my new meds, I seem to be able to take hills without having my heart monitor go crazy!  As a review, here are my heart meds:

Aspirin EC Tab                           81 mg                   1 per day            
Lipitor(Atorvastatin)                  40 mg                    1 per day            
Amlodipine                                   5 mg                   1 per day               
Plavix(Clipidorel Bisulfate)       75 mg                    1 per day              
Metoprolol(Lopressor, Toprol)   50 mg                   1 per day          
Isosorbide (Imdur or Isotrate)     30 mg                   1 per day  

The change last week was going from 100 mg of Metoprolol to 50 mg.  This is what they call a beta blocker, it reduces your blood pressure.  The only thing it did was make me feel tired and I still had the PVC's, but they happened at a lower heart rate.  And the new drug, Imdur.  This is a nitrate, it opens my blood vessels for and increases blood & oxygen throughout the body.  So, when I do my workout, my heart rate monitor does not indicate PVC's - but I still think I feel them.

I am planning on adding to my workouts starting next week.  So far, I will get the heart rate to 95-98 when I am walking uphills.  The plan next week will be to add 20 seconds of jogging on the flats.  So, for a 30-45 minute workout, I will add jogging 8-10 times.  I will also continue light weight lifying & pushups & situps.

The Imdur is still giving me headaches, but they seem to be decreasing in length.  Right now, I am getting the headaches about 3 hours after I take the Imdur and last for 4-5 hours.  Each day, I have been taking the drug 7 days, the length of the head aches decreasing in time and severity.

Come on jogging!!!!

No comments:

Post a Comment