What I'm Doing 10 Months After Open Heart Surgery?

Sometimes after a major surgery you need to take a look at life in new ways!  Add to that, recent retirement!  So what does a recently retired - open heart surgery person do?  Take a look at my Friday!

A visit to Speedwell Forge Lake.  For people in the Lancaster County area that love the outdoors, fishing, hiking, nature, and all the other awesome things about the outdoors, Speedwell Forge Lake has been a treasure!  The lake is in trouble!  The dam that contains the lake is not safe and the lake is being drained!  Over 5000 fish have been moved to other waters.  The cost to fix the lake - 6.8 million dollars is going to make it difficult, if not impossible!  But, people are rallying!  Visit the Facebook Site - Save Speedwell!

Next, a visit up the road to Speedwell Forge Park.  Great for the heart!  Good cardio exercise, relaxing walk, beautiful creek, the colors of leaves, and QUIET!  Check out the website - Speedwell Forge Park!

And then ending the evening at the football field for high school Friday Night Football!!  After 40 years, a bunch of us attending the Homecoming Game of our high school team!  Memories from 40 years ago, the games, the coaches, the friendships, and everything we shared surviving those wonderful teen years!

And a couple adult beverages at the Blue Bird Inn!  A great place to socialize & eat!

A full day, a fun day, and a great day to be ALIVE!

A Little Hospital Humor

It is amazing how your mind works in critical times!  Like Open Heart Surgery! I had many crazy thoughts and even one something like this!!

Medicines for PVC's

Doing more research on my PVC issues.  So far, my exercise workouts are going well the past 2 weeks.  I still feel the PVC's only during exercise and only when the heart rate goes above the 95-100 range.  The past two weeks I do feel better & they seem to less frequent.

My plan is to continue for the next week on my new dosages & see what happens.  I am also researching other meds.

Article at the Mayo Clinic - Treatment and Drugs

Article mentions PVC triggers and the drug - amiodarone.

And this article -

Anti-arrhythmia medications

Anti-arrhythmia medications are used to control premature ventricular contractions with the goal of preventing ventricular tachycardias, ventricular fibrillations, and sudden death. Examples of anti-arrhythmia medications include beta-blockers, procainamide (Pronestyl, Procan-SR, Procanbid),amiodarone (Cordarone), and several others. Unfortunately, there is little scientific evidence that suppressing premature ventricular contractions with anti-arrhythmic medications prevent ventricular tachycardias, ventricular fibrillations, and sudden death.

The drugs procainamide and amiodarone are mentioned here in this article.  The state "there is little evidence" that these drugs help is interesting!

The other aspect that I have not researches is stress and anxiety.  Even though I think I handle stress well, I need to research this in the future!

Second Week on Change of Meds for PVC's

I just finished my second week on the change for the medicine that I am on for PVC's.  Again, here is what I take each day.

For NON Heart Issues:

Singulair - 10 mg - 1 per day (this is for my allergies & asthma)

Aciphex - 20 mg - 1 per day (this is for my stomach issues)

Now the heart issues:

Bayer (low dose) Aspirin - 81 mg - 1 per day - (was taking this before my open heart surgery)

Lipitor - 40 mg -1 per day - (was taking 10 mg before the open heart surgery)

Plavix - 75 mg - 1 per day - (new after open heart surgery)

Amlodipine - 5 mg - 1 per day - (new after open heart surgery)

Metoprolol - 25 mg - 1 per day - (new after open heart surgery) (THIS WAS THE CHANGE)

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 

The change was the metoprolol for the PVC's.  I have been on 25 mg for 2 weeks now and seem to be doing OK.  Today I walked for 51 minutes & had no noticeable PVC's on my heart rate monitor.  I seemed to feel a few (this for me is the difficult part - some people feel them a lot easier than I do)  Today I had the heart rate up to 109 on the hills during my walk.  The range was from 71 to start, up to as high as 109.  Before, I would see the monitor go crazy in the 90-95 heart rate range.

So, the experiment continues!  I will contact my heart doctor next week to see what he thinks about my data!

GO PACKERS!  7-0